Republican hopeful Ted Cruz recently went out of his way to assure Fox News host Bill O'Reilly he is totally committed to a plan to deport all 12 million undocumented immigrants estimated to in the U.S., if the candidate were elected president.

"Yes, we should deport them," Cruz told "The O'Reilly Factor" host. "That's what ICE exists for. We have law enforcement that looks for people who are violating the laws, that apprehends them and deports them."

The Texas senator, who won the Iowa caucus, joined his rival, front-runner Donald Trump, in his response to the problem of illegal immigration. Cruz called for vastly increased border patrol and added, "We should build a wall."

Cruz Toughens Immigration Stance

The timing of Cruz's tougher stance on the issue was not lost on Trump, who immediately took to Twitter to suggest it was solely motivated by his inferior showing in the recent South Carolina primary.

Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier forcefully shot down that comment, insisting the Texas senator has long expressed such hard-line views.

"There's no change here," she wrote in an email. "Cruz has been very clear: People who are here illegally should be deported. That is the law today. Period. They broke the law, they face the consequence. ICE exists for that purpose and they should continue to do their job."

In the past, Cruz has resisted providing details about what he would do with people in the country illegally. Just over a month ago, he totally rejected the idea of a "deportation force," which Trump has openly called for.

"I don't intend to send jackboots to knock on your door and every door in America. That's not how we enforce the law for any crime," he told CNN's Jake Tapper at the time.

More recently, Cruz has argued he is even tougher on immigration than Trump. He pointed out his rival's proposal would allow those deported to eventually return to the U.S., while he would ban them forever.

Cruz Reflects on Learning to Speak Spanish

Cruz also recently took time out to guest star on an episode of Hugh Hewitt's radio show, where he reflected on his life in the U.S. as a Cuban-American.

"I grew up speaking Spanish," he said. "I learned it the same time as English, but my grammar is lousy. I have the classic second-generation challenge where I mis-conjugate the verbs and I mess up the masculine and the feminine. I understand most of it, so I can have a conversation, but it's nowhere near fluent, but I learned it at the same time I did English."

During that interview, Cruz also made certain to address the growing controversy over some of his perceived underhanded and deceitful campaign tactics.

"My opponents in this race have decided on a campaign strategy which is that they do not want to defend their own records so anytime anyone points to their actual records, instead of defending them because their records are inconsistent with what they're campaigning on," he told Hewitt. "Both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, instead of defending their records, they simply begin screaming, 'Liar, liar, liar,' and engaging in personal and direct insults."

Listen to a clip from his interview:

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