Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio got into their biggest face-off yet over immigration

The gloves are off. After a successful Tuesday night debate for both Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and weeks of running close in the polls, the two Republican presidential candidates have gotten into their first big clash. As the two candidates fight for the same base of conservative voters, they're beginning to butt heads on a key topic: immigration.

The face-off started Wednesday with Cruz criticizing Rubio for his role in the 2013 Gang of Eight immigration reform bill and his opposition to securing the border. "In my view, if Republicans nominate for president a candidate who supports amnesty, we will have given up one of the major distinctions with Hillary Clinton and we will lose the general election," Cruz said, underscoring Rubio's positions. "That is a path to losing."

Cruz says that, unlike some "establishment Republicans" who sided with President Obama and Democrats in "pushing the massive amnesty plan," he, on the other hand, would have "stood with the American people and led the fight to defeat it in the United States Congress."

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That's not how Rubio sees it. He responded to Cruz's attacks by suggesting that, actually, Cruz was in favor of amnesty. "In fact, when the Senate bill was proposed, he proposed giving them work permits," Rubio said. He later added that Cruz also "supported a massive expansion of the green cards."

"If you look at it, I don’t believe our positions are dramatically different," Rubio said.

Cruz's spokesman dismissed that as "laughably false."