Republican presidential contender Sen. Ted Cruz, who at one point refused to speak negatively of rival Donald Trump, said in a new interview that the billionaire businessman's immigration plan is a roundabout version of amnesty, which shouldn't come as a surprise since Trump "was publicly supporting amnesty" in 2013.

Cruz told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that Trump's immigration plan is essentially amnesty, as he would first deport undocumented immigrants but then allow them to return to the country and obtain citizenship.

"Donald Trump's position is once you deport them, it's what's called touchback. A lot of establishment Republicans had touchback," the Texas senator said. "Basically you make them fly back to their country for a minute, touch the ground, and then they come back with amnesty as citizens. Now, Donald is entitled to do that. He can advance that position, but he doesn't get to pretend that it's not amnesty if he's legalizing 12 million people [who are] here illegally."

Cruz also suggested Trump is simply exploiting the issue of illegal immigration for political gain, claiming that Trump publicly supported amnesty as recently as 2013 during the battle over the "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill.

"Look, I understand that Marco Rubio and Donald Trump are trying very, very hard to blur the lines here. Marco Rubio stood with Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama and advocated for citizenship and amnesty for 12 million people here illegally. I stood with Jeff Sessions and Steve King and led the opposition that defeated amnesty," Cruz told ABC News, noted The Washington Times.

"I would note at that time, right in the middle of the fight, Donald Trump was publicly supporting amnesty. He was supporting Marco Rubio's Dream Act," Cruz said. "He was criticizing Mitt Romney for being too tough on immigration. That's where Donald Trump was in 2013. Now, when he launched his campaign for president, suddenly he discovered illegal immigration was a problem."

Cruz also recently pointed to a tweet sent by Trump in 2013, in which the real estate mogul said that "Congress must protect our borders first. Amnesty should be done only if the border is secure and illegal immigration has stopped."

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