Cruz: I won’t let deported immigrants return like Trump

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Tuesday that he differs from GOP presidential rival Donald Trump by opposing legal citizenship for immigrants who were previously deported.

“Look, there’s a difference,” he told a questioner in Boone, Iowa, in footage first reported on by BuzzFeed. “He’s advocated allowing folks to come back and become citizens. I oppose that.”

{mosads}Cruz admitted that he and Trump align on deporting all of the nation’s illegal immigrant population, however.

“Absolutely, yes,” the GOP presidential candidate said when asked if he supports deporting every illegal immigrant in America. “We should enforce the law.”

Cruz additionally touted his immigration policy platform designed in tandem with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) during the clip. The Texas senator is currently conducting a 36-county bus tour of Iowa before the early-voting state’s 2016 presidential caucuses next month.

Cruz leads Trump in Iowa by about 4 percentage points in the most recent index of Hawkeye State polls. Nationally, however, Trump still leads Cruz in the race for next year’s GOP presidential nomination, by nearly 16 points, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average.

The two men have repeatedly expressed mutual admiration since launching their respective Oval Office bids last year. Trump has gradually sharpened his rhetoric against Cruz, however, as the congressman closes the gap in voter support separating them.