U.S. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said that he would send all Syrian refugees that the U.S. takes in back home if he becomes president as they "could be ISIS," in a campaign speech on Wednesday.
Speaking in Keene, New Hampshire, the construction magnate criticised U.S. plans to take in Syrian refugees fleeing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country caused by a four and a half year-long civil war. He spoke of proposals to accept 200,000 Syrians in future years but so far the U.S. has only pledged to absorb 10,000 Syrian refugees next year.
Trump said that the refugees being offered sanctuary by the U.S. "could be ISIS. They are all men and they are all strong."
"I'm putting people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration, that if I win, they're going back," he said, adding that the refugee crisis in the Middle East could be "one of the great tactical ploys of all time."
In front of thousands, his first appearance in New Hampshire since he controversially failed to correct an audience member's claim that U.S. President Barack Obama is a Muslim, Trump said that the Syrian refugees could become a national security threat in the form of an "army."
"A 200,000-man army maybe, or if you said 50,000 or 80,000 or 100,000, we got problems and that could be possible," he proclaimed. "I don't know that it is, but it could be possible so they're going back—they're going back."
The speech seems to contradict comments made earlier this month in an interview with Fox News when the billionaire appeared to suggest the U.S. should accept more refugees. "I hate the concept of it, but on a humanitarian basis, you have to...they are living in hell in Syria and something has to be done," he said when asked if he objected to refugees coming to the U.S..
One of the main topics of Trump's presidential campaign thus far has been immigration and he has pledged to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.
The U.S. has absorbed 1,500 Syrians since the onset of the civil war in March 2011 but U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently announced plans to raise the cap on accepting refugees worldwide from 70,000 to 100,000 by 2017.
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