He has never been against deportation. His stance is and always has been that we secure the border and enforce the law. He has been addressing deportation on the campaign trail and how the goal can be accomplished. We won’t have to deport all of them, when the incentives dry up, they’ll go.
Per earlier thread:
In 2014, the editorial board of the Union Leader newspaper in New Hampshire asked Cruz that specific question.
Cruz responded that he would not deport any illegal immigrants who had obeyed all other USA laws.
How about adding the incentive that if they self-deport, they’re allowed to re-apply to immigrate legally in line with everyone else. But if they’re caught and deported, they are banned from ever re-applying legally or re-entering on any visa. That would be the stick and carrot to motivate a lot of them to leave, especially once the deportations get stepped up to show we mean business.