U.S. Rep. David Rivera and challenger Joe Garcia engaged in a nationally televised, informal debate on Spanish-language television Sunday — the rivals’ most high-profile appearance in the closely watched congressional race.

Rivera, a Republican, and Garcia, a Democrat, touched on Cuba, immigration and Rivera’s ongoing federal investigation woes on Univision’s Al Punto (To the Point) with Jorge Ramos, who was accompanied by local WLTV-Univision 23 affiliate reporter Mario Andrés Moreno.

The debate, which lasted less than 20 minutes, was hardly long enough for the two rivals — who also ran against each other in 2010 — to delve into issues important to Congressional District 26, which extends from Kendall to Key West.

They got into the most detail on Cuba, an issue Rivera has pushed on the campaign trail to rally his base of hard-line, older Cuban-American voters. Rivera decried Cuban Americans who benefit from U.S. social programs and then return to the island to spend that money.

“I think that is in abuse, that these people are receiving these benefits and are traveling subsidizing a terrorist country with those benefits,” he said.

Earlier this year, Rivera filed legislation in Congress that would amend the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act to sanction Cuban Americans who return to the island before they obtain their U.S. citizenship, which generally takes up to five years. The decades old law allows Cubans to obtain U.S. residency a year and a day after they arrive in the U.S. — a benefit offered to citizens of no other country.

Garcia said he and Rivera both oppose the Castro regime in Cuba and support the U.S. trade embargo toward the island — a key question not only for Cuban-American voters in the Southwest Miami-Dade portion of the district but also for more moderate voters in the Florida Keys, many of whom favor lifting the embargo.

The difference between the two candidates’ positions, Garcia said, is that, unlike Rivera, he favors the Obama administration’s policy to allow more travel and remittances to Cuba.

Garcia also praised the move by Raúl Castro’s government last week to drop exit permits for citizens traveling abroad, and to allow Cubans to spend two years — instead of 11 months — abroad before they lose benefits on the island such as health care.

“It’s something the Cuban people have wanted for half a century,” Garcia said, adding that he doesn’t think the new policy would lead to a mass exodus of Cubans. He warned that it remains to be seen how the new policy works in practice.

Rivera said the new policy doesn’t represent any significant change, since the government will still have the power to deny exit permits. The crucial detail, he added, is that Cubans will be allowed to stay abroad longer — a change Rivera said is intended to allow more Cubans to benefit from the Cuban Adjustment Act.

When the debate pivoted to immigration, Garcia said he backs comprehensive reform and the DREAM Act, which would allow young people brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents with a path to citizenship. Moreno, the local Univision reporter, then turned to Rivera.

“Congressman, you were against the DREAM Act all along,” Moreno said.

“No, incorrect,” Rivera answered, to Moreno’s surprise.