Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz tried to differentiate himself from GOP front-runner Donald Trump on the issue of immigration by explaining that, unlike Trump, he would not require officials hunt for undocumented residents door-to-door.

During an interview with CNN, Jake Tapper asked Cruz to detail how he plans to deport the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants who currently reside in the U.S. Tapper also asked if the candidate would enforce a plan similar to the billionaire businessman's proposal, which would authorize a special force to roundup undocumented workers through a tedious search.

"Will you have people going door-to-door rounding people up?" asked Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on "State of the Union."

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

The Texas senator also suggested that going door-to-door to look for undocumented immigrants would basically create a police state.

"We don't have any system that knocks on the doors of every person in America," Cruz told 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."

Instead, Cruz said he would be in favor of enforcing the laws that are already on the books to stop illegal immigration. He said he would only deport those who are apprehended if they happen to commit a crime or get caught by prospective employers without papers authorizing their legal status.

He argued that agents with the Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) or Border Patrol could also better apprehend those along the border.

"We catch them through things like e-verify. We can them through things like the criminal law enforcement system," Cruz said.

Watch video of Cruz's interview below.