After Brussels attack, Christie repeats stance against NJ accepting refugees

Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday in Long Branch that a unified effort is needed to crush ISIS, the group claiming responsibility for Tuesday's subway and airport attacks in Brussels.

“Europeans certainly understand today, as they did after the two attacks in Paris, that Europe could very well be the front lines for this fight,” he said. “They have to decide what additional steps they’re willing to take to protect their own citizens.”

When Christie was asked whether he favors the idea of closing the New Jersey borders to Syrian refugees, he said that while that remains a federal decision, he’s convinced the refugees should not be allowed in “based on one fact, which is that the director of the FBI says that we cannot vet these people before they come in effectively to determine whether they’re a national security threat or not.”

“I think we’re seeing in Europe what the effect of open borders for refugees is having, not only civil disturbances in Germany and other places, but you also have to begin to wonder, as these cells begin to develop all throughout the EU, whether or not this was a wise policy decision that was made.”

After dropping out of the presidential race, Christie endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump, who has stood by his controversial call to temporarily ban Muslim immigrants.

Christie said Tuesday that Homeland Security officials in the Garden State are working closely with their counterparts in New York, pointing out a agreement he signed with Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2014 “has resulted in closer collaboration and greater intelligence sharing with New York than ever before, our tactical responses on both sides of the river have been seamless and well coordinated.”

He stressed when it comes to terror groups like ISIS, “we are in a war, it is a different war, but it is a war and any of us who think differently are sadly mistaken.

When the governor was asked whether National Guard troops have been deployed as part of the state’s security ramp-up, he said not at this time, “but I won’t hesitate to do that if I am in receipt of intelligence that makes me believe we need even further coverage.”

“We believe that with our Port Authority Police Department, our New Jersey Transit Police Department and the New Jersey State Police that we have the folks that are necessary in coordination with county sheriff’s offices and our local police departments to be able to have the personnel we need to be able to do this the right way.”