Ted Cruz in Sun City: Condemns plan to accept Muslim Syrian refugees after Paris attacks

This story was updated Nov. 16 to reflect Gov. Nikki Haley's stance on barring Syrian refugees from South Carolina.

During a campaign stop in Sun City Hilton Head Monday, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz condemned President Barack Obama's plan to accept up to 10,000 Syrian refugees following the attacks in Paris.



The plan "is nothing short of lunacy," Cruz, a presidential contender, told an overflow crowd of hundreds at the community's pavilion.



"This is a humanitarian crisis. There are genuine refugees that need to be cared for, but they should be resettled in the Middle East in majority Muslim countries," Cruz said to raucous applause from the crowd.



Cruz lends his voice to a growing number of governors and legislators condemning the refugee program after reports that at least one of the terrorists involved in Friday's attacks was a recent Syrian immigrant to France.



Now many Republican lawmakers are speaking out against U.S. participation in the federal program amid concerns it would not be able to screen refugees with ties to ISIS, Cruz said.



On Monday, Gov. Nikki Haley said  she continues to support allowing persecuted immigrants to come to South Carolina — as long as they’re not from Syria.

Republicans in the House and Senate called on Haley to oppose all international refugees.

Cruz sounded a similar sentiment Monday.



"Every one of us, our hearts grieve for the people of France, for the mothers and fathers, the sons and daughters who have lost their lives," he said. "And yet that attack underscores the vicious hatred of those who would seek to kill us."



Obama and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton refuse to address ISIS as "radical Islamic terrorism," crippling the U.S. response, Cruz said.



"France was not attacked by some sort of abstract violent extremists," he said. "The last I checked, those plans that flew into the Twin Towers weren't piloted by a bunch of ticked off Presbyterians.



"We cannot defeat radical Islamic terrorism as long as we have a president unwilling to utter those words," he said.



This week Cruz said he plans to push Congress to consider a bill he filed last year that would revoke U.S. citizenship for anyone who seeks to join a foreign terrorist organization, such as ISIS.



"ISIS has been very clear that they intend to do in America what happened in Paris," Cruz said. "If we simply allow them to come in and wage jihad, (it) is an act of colossal foolishness."



The attacks against Clinton and Obama earned Cruz repeated bursts of applause and shouts of approval from the Sun City crowd, which has repeatedly asked visiting GOP presidential candidates about the threat of ISIS this summer and fall.



In the wide-ranging speech, Cruz also discussed his flat-tax plan, out-fundraising Jeb Bush and continued to jab the other Republican candidates for supporting any measure of amnesty for illegal immigrants.



Last week, he and Sen. Marco Rubio, who was visiting Hilton Head Island, traded barbs over their illegal immigration policies. Both argue that current federal immigration rules must be enforced before larger reforms are approved.



At the same time Cruz addressed the media in Sun City, Iowa Rep. Steve King announced he has endorsed Cruz -- expected to buoy Cruz's showing in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses next year.

Follow reporter Zach Murdock on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and on Facebook at facebook.com/IPBGZach.

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 9:51 AM with the headline "Ted Cruz in Sun City: Condemns plan to accept Muslim Syrian refugees after Paris attacks."