Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in an interview broadcast Sunday he will enforce all immigration laws if he is elected president, but won't be going door-to-door to round up people for deportation.
"Federal immigration law says if we apprehend an individual who is here illegally they will be deported. I will enforce the law," Cruz told CNN's
"State of the Union."
"Will you have people going door-to-door?" host Jake Tapper asked.
"We don't have any system that knocks on the door of every person in America," Cruz said. "We don't have people going door to door looking for murders. We don't live in a police state. We have law enforcement."
Instead, Cruz said, people would be caught through the eVerify system. They wouldn't be allowed to work if they are not here legally, he said.
"Do you know how many criminal illegal aliens the Obama administration released? Over 104,000," Cruz said, noting that 196 had homicide convictions, 400 had sexual assault convictions and more than 16,000 had drunken driving convictions.
"Those numbers should be zero," he said. "We have law enforcement authorities that enforce our laws. Your question you keep saying, are they going to knock open every door in American? No. I don't intend to send them to knock on every door in America. That's not how we enforce the law for any crime."