Cruz vows to round up and forcefully deport immigrants

US Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz says if elected, he will round up and deport undocumented immigrants using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

On Monday night, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly asked Cruz, "Would you go look for them, though? As (Donald) Trump would look for them to get them out, would you do that if you were president?"

"Bill, of course you would, that's what ICE exists for," Cruz said. "We have law enforcement that looks for people who are violating the laws, that apprehends them and deports them."

The host asked Cruz a hypothetical question, regarding an immigrant from Ireland with "a couple of kids and he's settled into Long Island."

"And you, President Cruz, are going to send the feds to his house, take him out, and put him on a plane back to Ireland?" O'Reilly asked.

"You better believe it," Cruz responded.

Donald Trump, who has never held elected office, is leading the Republican presidential primary field, despite the fact that his campaign has been marked by controversial statements, including with disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants and Muslims.

Trump says he would deport 11 million undocumented workers from the United States and would establish a “deportation force” for this purpose.

He has also promised to expel undocumented immigrants and build a wall on the US-Mexico border. In addition, he has proposed repealing the constitutional right to citizenship of anyone born on US soil.

Up until last month, Cruz was against forcefully deporting immigrants, but it seems he has also adopted Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric.

In an interview with CNN in January, Cruz had said he would not deploy a "deportation force” against immigrants.

"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," Cruz told Tapper. "We don't live in a police state. We do have law enforcement."

Cruz won the GOP Iowa caucuses early this month, but later on lost the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries to Trump.

In an interview later on, Trump said the Iowa caucuses was stolen from him by Cruz’s campaign, adding he “probably will” file a legal complaint against the Texas senator. He accused Cruz of “voter fraud.”

Last week, Trump called Cruz an “unstable” person and threatened him with legal action if he does not “take down his false ads and retract his lies.”

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