Ted Cruz on Tuesday said he did not “intend” to support a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, closing the door much more tightly on a proposal he has repeatedly declined to address.
Cruz has vocally opposed a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, but he has taken pains during his presidential campaign to never rule out a path to legal status, often telling reporters that he will not discuss what to do with them until the border has secured.
But in Tuesday night’s CNN debate, Cruz went further than he ever has before.
“I have never supported legalization, and I do not intend to support legalization,” the Texas senator said on the debate stage, after rival Florida Sen. Marco Rubio encouraged the moderators to pose that question again to Cruz.
While Cruz has pushed back on Rubio’s claim that the Texas senator supported a path to legal status during the 2013 immigration fights in Congress, Cruz has never before stated that he did not plan to support a path to legal status moving forward.