Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., tweeted Friday morning that the U.S. is at war with “radical Islamic terrorism,” and said the U.S. needs to “immediately deport any non-citizens listed on a terror watch list.”
“Islamic terrorists will use every tool at their disposal; whether it is an airplane, a boat, truck, pressure-cooker, knife, or a gun,” he said in a separate tweet. “Any government official who focuses on the method more than the terrorists themselves is making a disastrous mistake.”
His tweets appeared less than a day after the terror attack in Nice, France, that left at least 84 dead and more than 200 wounded, and said “bold steps” are needed to keep the country safe.
He then called on President Obama to first “halt the Syrian refugee resettlement program” and then “immediately deport any non-citizens listed on a terror-watch list.”
“Furthermore, we should indefinitely suspend all forms of immigration and visas from countries considered to be hotbeds for terrorism,” he tweeted.
Duncan defended his tweets and answered questions from Twitter users.
He wrote to one person that he was not calling on all Europeans to be blocked from U.S. travel, and said the recent attacks “should give us pause on who we’re granting citizenship to and which countries we allow immigration from.”
Obama, he said in a new tweet, has the power to implement most of his proposals “on his own. Congress’s role would largely be forcing him act.”
He told another user that he was not calling on banning Muslims, but rather “banning immigration from terrorism hot beds.”
“Thanks for the dialog. Some were more respectful than others, but the threat of Islamic terrorism is very real. We must ACT!” he concluded on Twitter.
Elected in 2010, Duncan serves as the Subcommittee Chairman of Homeland Security’s Oversight and Management Efficiency Subcommittee.
