The granting of tourist visas and asylum are two glaring ways in which the federal government is allowing terrorists to flourish in the United States, according to Iowa Rep. Steve King.
"Most of the 9/11 hijackers came in on tourist visas. Tourist visas are essentially an open door and so are student visas," King told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
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"And asylum . . . we've seen the asylum method be the case with the two bombers from Boston."
King, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said the country must focus on non-citizens considered "persons of interest from nations of interest . . . that fit the profile of a terrorist, that come from a terrorist-producing nation, to put it bluntly."
A number of potential terrorists come to the United States after honing their deadly skills south of the border, King noted.
"There are also a respectable number of them that should cause us to be very concerned coming across our southern border," he said.
"Some go into the Central, South American countries and stay there a couple years and learn some Spanish and change their name to a Hispanic last name, then sneak into America."
Learning about these men and women of interest is difficult because information about them is not public, King explained.
"I find out about them occasionally but they go into the FBI then, the FBI's custody. At that moment, even the border patrol can't tell me about them any longer because it's classified," he said.
"We don't know what that number is . . . I'm very concerned about that open door."
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