Ted Cruz wants to handle the influx of Central American immigrants his own way.

Texas’ junior U.S. senator said between tours of Border Patrol facilities and Sacred Heart Church on Saturday he planned to introduce legislation next week to allow for speedy deportations of Central American children and families.

During a news conference and an interview — following tours of the McAllen Border Patrol station and a still-empty warehouse built to house unaccompanied children who cross through the Rio Grande Valley — Cruz, a freshman Republican, hammered President Barack Obama for policies the senator said amounted to a “promise of amnesty.”

“I met, not just with senior leadership of the Border Patrol, but with a number of the agents who are on the front lines, who are dealing with these issues every day,” Cruz said. “And I asked them a very open-ended question: ‘What is causing this crisis?’ Without hesitation, every single agent there said: ‘They’re coming because they believe they’ll get amnesty.’ That is the cause, and the Obama Administration refuses to acknowledge that because that’s politically inconvenient.”

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