Rep. Will Hurd said Tuesday "there were no credible threats" to the United States "as of two days ago" from individuals from the seven majority-Muslim countries covered by President Donald Trump's executive order travel ban.
However, "there's over 200 Americans that have gone into Iraq and Syria to fight with ISIS," the Texas Republican, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Erin Burnett on CNN.
"One of the problems that we saw was that our European allies weren't vetting known travelers against watch lists, information we were providing about people connected to terrorism.
"There are visa loopholes and issues that need to be tightened up — and we've passed legislation in the last Congress looking at some of those issues."
He added Islamic State terrorists have a better chance of getting into the United States from Europe than from the countries affected by Trump's order.
"It's a lot quicker to be fighting in a place like Iraq or Syria, slip into Turkey, get into Europe, find a fake European passport, and come through one of our ports of entry," he told Burnett. "That will take a significant amount of time.
"These are people who are smart and committed.
"The reality is that the world we live in is more dangerous than our parents' — and our kids are likely to inherit a world that's more dangerous than ours.
"So, doing everything we can to fight Islamic terrorism is important," Hurd concluded, "but we have to have allies."
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