The ONLY thing that stopped the Gang of 8 was Dave Brat being elected.
Cruz had nothing to do with it.
You are correct. I’m in Virginia. During the Brat/Cantor campaign, all anyone could talk about was that Cantor was pro amnesty (true). Cantor went down hard and caused a political earthquake in DC. They knew why he lost, ran into their holes, and changed their votes. Gang of 8 bill went crashing down. It would have passed if Cantor loss hadn’t shocked them out of their cute little plans.
I’ve listened to Jeff Sessions discuss it. He said Ted Cruz was instrumental in stopping this bill and exposing the truth if what was in the bill. Rubio and Schumer, in true rat fashion, tried to push it through before anyone found out what was really on it.