Ted Cruz is trying to distinguish his deportation plan from Donald Trump's

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sought to differentiate his immigration stance from Donald Trump's in a CNN State of the Union interview Sunday.

"No, I don't intend to send jackboots to knock on your door and every door in America," he said. "That's not how we enforce the law for any crime."

Both Trump and Cruz have endorsed deportations of undocumented immigrants, but Cruz suggested his approach would be more tied to traditional law enforcement strategies, as opposed to Trump's idea for a "deportation force."

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"We don't have any system that knocks on the doors of every person in America," he told host Jake Tapper. "We also don't have people going door-to-door looking for murderers. We don't live in a police state. We do have law enforcement."

Check out more of Cruz's comments here.

Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.