"Well, Donald Trump's against amnesty and I'm against amnesty. Not that anybody should care what a consultant thinks," Kellyanne Conway says. | Getty Trump's campaign manager insists he's against amnesty

Donald Trump's campaign manager on Thursday morning insisted that he's against amnesty and pushed back against the idea that his pledge to "work with" undocumented immigrants sounded similar to proposals from Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush.

"Well, Donald Trump's against amnesty and I'm against amnesty. Not that anybody should care what a consultant thinks," Kellyanne Conway said as she faced off with CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day."


Cuomo pushed back, noting that an immigration hardliner like Iowa Rep. Steve King would likely glean "amnesty" from Trump's comments in which the GOP nominee said of non-criminal immigrants, "we work with them."

"So let me tell you what his plan is, because this helps the voters understand where Donald Trump is on immigration. It is this week what it has always been," Conway said. "No amnesty."

Trump still opposes sanctuary cities, Conway continued, invoking the case of Kate Steinle, the woman killed last year in San Francisco by an undocumented immigrant who had been previously deported five times.

"That should outrage everyone in this country, regardless of their political affiliation," Conway said. "Hillary Clinton is for sanctuary cities, she’s for catch and release, she’s open borders. She’s actually considerably to the left of President Obama on the issue of immigration. And the only way the voters will know that is if we tell them because she won't. She is hiding from that. No amnesty from him. No open borders. Secure the border. Build the wall. Have Mexico pay for it. No sanctuary cities. Get these businesses to have e-verify to make them more accountable. You can't look at somebody's document and look the other way."

When Cuomo responded that it sounded similar to what Rubio, Cruz and Bush had proposed, Conway took particular issue with the mention of the Florida senator.

"Rubio's plan was much more — see, this man is not for amnesty," Conway said of Trump.

"Neither is Rubio," Cuomo shot back, to which Conway responded with a shrug and "well..."

"What they said is work with them. You can't deport everybody. You can't break up these families. Donald Trump said exactly that last night," Cuomo said.

Explaining that Rubio "is a particularly different case because he led the Gang of Eight with Chuck Schumer and I think Dick Durbin," Conway said that their plan "was amnesty."

"Their plan was and is if, they had their way, and I think it hurt him to try to work with these Democrats who want open borders and it hurt him," she said of Rubio.

Conway then emphasized the experience of his team on the issue, including Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and his longtime staffer and current Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

"I think they are trying to find a way to explain, well, for Donald Trump to articulate to Americans a very complex issue and how he feels about it. But I assure you, nothing has changed in terms of the policies," Conway said. "I also think that we should all give him credit for saying that when it comes to 11 or 12 million of illegal immigrants, A, you enforce the laws. You wouldn't believe, Chris, how much would change quickly if you actually enforce the laws that are not being enforced. Number two, he wants to find a quote, these are his words, quote, fair and humane way of dealing with them, and quote, he doesn't want to cause people harm. That's leadership. That's presidential."