Trump: I Want Registry of Syrian Refugees Like One Currently Maintained, But Also Don’t Want Them Coming In

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that he wants a registry of Syrian refugees, but that the difference between his plan and what is done now is, “I don’t want them to come here” in an interview broadcast on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor.”

Trump was asked, “Let’s start with the Muslim registry controversy. What do you want there? What’s your vision?

He answered, “Well, it’s very simple. When they come in from Syria, guests of President Obama, we shouldn’t be taking any, because we have no idea where they come from, who they are. they have no paperwork. There’s no way of moving that their paperwork is correct. When they come in from Syria. I want them to be registered. They have to be registered. We have to watch them, because we just don’t know who they are. We don’t know where they come from. We don’t know if they’re ISIS, and we don’t know if they have evil intentions. So I want them registered.”

Trump was then asked how this registry would be any different from what is maintained Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and whether what he wants is already reality. He responded, “No. What I want is, I don’t want them to come here. We shouldn’t be taking anybody. … you shouldn’t do it, because we have no idea — ICE, do you believe in ICE?” And then cited the death of Kate Steinle as an example of lack of confidence in ICE. Trump also stated that there would be a “safe zone” for Syrian refugees inside the country in conjunction with the Gulf states and potentially NATO.

The discussion then turned to a tweet Trump re-tweeted that had “totally wrong” statistics regarding race and crime. Trump stated, “I didn’t tweet. I retweeted somebody that was supposedly an expert and who’s also a radio show.” He added, “Am I going to check every statistic? I get millions and millions of people.” He further said that the tweet “didn’t come from me” and was just a retweet of something that “came out of a radio show, and other places.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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