Ted Cruz's call for increased surveillance in Muslim communities in the United States may be an inflammatory message that "could have an unintended consequence," as Europe's situation is different than that in the United States, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said Sunday.
"In Europe it's very segregated," the Texas Republican told CBS'
"Face the Nation" program. "They're being radicalized because they're not assimilated with the culture. I don't think we have that same situation in the United States."
Further, he said, American people are being protected through additional security at airports and other transit locations, including "ramping up security at train stations, at airports, at subway systems using canines and other things both visible and invisible. I want to give the American people assurances that we are protecting them."
But still, there are ISIS followers in the United States who have been speaking to the jihadist group in Syria and who fall under their influence, and some fighters have left the United States to join in the overseas battles and have since come home, radicalized, said McCaul.
"The biggest challenge to federal law enforcement is the fact that they're communicating in darkness," said McCaul of the encrypted communications being used. "If you can't see what they're saying in advance, it's hard to stop it."
Meanwhile, Europe has many intelligence and security gaps, such as the ones facing the United States before the 9-11 attacks, McCaul told the program.
"The phenomena here is a foreign fighter threat, the revolving door from Europe to the region in Iraq and Syria and back through Turkey, back into Europe," said McCaul. "They're they're not prepared for it from a security standpoint."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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