Republican hopefuls use Paris terror attacks as ammo against refugees

Republican presidential front-runners on Saturday used the weekend terror attacks in Paris as an argument against the US taking in Syrian refugees and as the basis for calls to toughen up immigration and border security.

Referring to reports that one of the terrorists who struck in the French capital was from Syria, Donald Trump lambasted what he claimed was a White House plan to bring hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees to America.

“Our president wants to take in 250,000 from Syria,” he said. “I mean, think of it. 250,000 people. And we all have heart. And we all want people taken care of and all of that. But with the problems our country has, to take in 250.000 people — some of whom are going to have problems, big problems.”

According to Reuters, the Obama administration revealed in September a plan to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees in the twelve months from October, a significant increase from the less than 2,000 who were let in last year.

Trump, speaking at a rally in Beaumont, Texas, also said the terror attacks in Paris would have been “a much, much different situation” had the victims been armed with guns.

He began the event with a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the attacks.

In an interview with Fox News Senator Ted Cruz also attacked the idea of evacuating Syrian refugees to the US.

“President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s idea that we should bring tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees to America, it is nothing less than lunacy,” Cruz said speaking from an event in Greenville.

French officials said 129 people were dead and hundreds more injured after the series of coordinated bombings and shootings.

Trump also criticized President Barack Obama’s handling of the Islamic State group, saying that the US should be more aggressive in its approach.

He has been calling for the US to destroy oil fields the group controls.

At the Sunshine Summit Republican, Florida, Chris Christie panned the US government for not having implemented better border security to prevent IS agents from infiltrating into the US, Politico reported.

If tighter measure were in place then “on an afternoon like this afternoon we wouldn’t be worried about ISIS [Islamic State] slipping across our borders to commit unspeakable acts of violence,” he said.

Bobby Jindal, speaking at the same happening, pointed to French President François Hollande’s slamming shut of France’s border immediately after the attacks as an example the US should follow.

“It’s time for us here in America to secure our borders and keep us safe as well from these radical evil terrorists,” he said.