Here is the Cruz Tweet:
9:37 AM - 19 Jun 2013
We need to secure the border. Any bill this body passes should have border security first & then legalization. Not the other way around.
I realize Cruz stipulates border security first. But I don’t want the mass legalization afterward. Too many of these Foreign Invaders have demonstrated that they are here to undercut America. What’s more, they broke the law to get here. The last thing they need is to be rewarded with legal status. [Btw, anyone who claims Trump supports touch back amnesty is clueless. Sessions co-wrote Trump’s immigration policy, and approved the final draft. Sessions does not support touch back amnesty.]
That does not necessarily mean that he is supporting legalization. He is merely pointing out that the one thing needs to happen before any discussion of the other should occur.
I don't find this sort of verbiage unusually for a Lawyer or a Negotiator. When you are trying to reason with the moderates in your own party, you let them think they might in the future get their way, if they let you get your way right now. You get them to agree on one point, and then you try to push them a little farther later.
It's what a clever fellow would do. I'm sure Trump has mentioned this tactic in his book "The art of the deal."