Vice President Joe Biden opened the three-day White House conference on countering violent extremism by arguing that America’s long history of assimilating immigrants could help prevent terrorist attacks on U.S. soil similar to the recent spate of assaults in Europe.

“I am not suggesting that America has all of the answers here — we are just a lot more experienced,” he said in lengthy remarks before the beginning of a roundtable on community initiatives for countering extremism at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.