Donald Trump said Ted Cruz's immigration game is "actually quite weak." | AP Photo Cruz copying me on border wall, Trump says

Donald Trump threw a few punches in Ted Cruz's direction in an interview aired Sunday, hitting the Texas senator for copying his call to build a wall on the Mexican border and billing himself as being on the vanguard of the national immigration discussion in the presidential campaign.

"Ted Cruz is trying to step up his whole game on amnesty and on illegal immigration because it was actually quite weak," the Republican presidential candidate told CBS' "Face the Nation."


Asked whether Cruz's plan is stricter on undocumented workers, Trump said it is not.

"Well, first of all, his plan just happened, OK? In fact, I was watching the other day. And I was watching Ted talk. And he said, 'We will build a wall.' The first time I've ever heard him say it," he continued. "And my wife, who was sitting next to me, said, 'Oh, look. He's copying what you've been saying for a long period of time.'"

Trump then said that he was talking about deportation, remarking that people can come back into the country legally and that he wants a "strong border."

"And I'm the one that came up with it. Look. When I announced that I was running, I brought up illegal immigration. It wasn't even a subject that would have been discussed in this debate. And now it's one of the very big subjects," he said, before referring to Cruz's game on immigration and amnesty as "weak."

He also lumped Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with Cruz, remarking that both are trying to "solve the problems that they've had in the past because they were both weak on it. And I have been very strong on it."

"So they're trying to get stronger. But, look, nobody has that position like I have that position. I want the wall. I want strong borders. I want everybody out. Now, people are coming to me. But nobody has that issue like me," he said. "And nobody's going to be able to do it like me. Nobody. As an example, on the wall. Nobody is getting Mexico to pay for the wall, the cost of the wall, but me. They don't even know about that. That's not even in their vocabulary."