--- title: Donald Trump Calls for Strict Borders After Brussels Attack description: Republican Donald Trump repeated his argument that the U.S. must be more vigilant with its border security after attacks in Brussels canonical: https://time.com/4267390/donald-trump-responds-brussels-attack/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-22T12:41:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T15:50:03.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Calls for Stricter U.S. Borders After Brussels Attack og:description: Trump: authorities should "do a lot more than waterboarding" to get information og:url: https://time.com/4267390/donald-trump-responds-brussels-attack/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c58b4f43180598a/69888bf9ab6d7706c16a8f0f/gettyimages-516871656.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Presidential Candidates Speak At The AIPAC Policy Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Calls for Stricter U.S. Borders After Brussels Attack twitter:description: Trump: authorities should "do a lot more than waterboarding" to get information twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c58b4f43180598a/69888bf9ab6d7706c16a8f0f/gettyimages-516871656.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Calls for Stricter U.S. Borders After Brussels Attack  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:50 PM UTCPublished: Mar 22, 2016 12:41 PM UTC  Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, speaks during the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington, D.C., U.S., on March 21. Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, speaks during the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington, D.C., U.S., on March 21.Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:50 PM UTCPublished: Mar 22, 2016 12:41 PM UTC Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump responded to [Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels](http://time.com/4267343/brussels-attacks-isis-analysis/?xid=homepage) by repeating his argument that the U.S. must be more vigilant with its border security. “I would be very, very tough on the borders, and I would not be allowing certain people to come into this country without absolute perfect documentation,” Trump said in an [interview with the _Today_ show](http://www.today.com/video/donald-trump-waterboarding-would-be-fine-to-interrogate-terror-suspect-649868867713), when asked how he would handle this situation as president. “I would exclude the people coming in from Syria that don’t have documentation coming in from the migration line,” he said. “I would certainly exclude those people from coming in. The assimilation has been a disaster.” Trump made similar statements in the wake of the Paris attacks by Islamic extremists in November, when he called for [increased surveillance of American Muslims](http://time.com/4120711/donald-trump-paris-attack-muslims/) and proposed a [ban on Muslims](http://time.com/4140717/donald-trump-muslim-ban-morning-joe-how-it-would-work/) entering the country. “Brussels is a total mess, and I’m not talking about the attack today. I’m talking about generally speaking,” he said, adding that police lack control in the city. Trump also said authorities should be using any means necessary to get information from Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving alleged perpetrator of November’s Paris attacks, [who was captured last Friday](http://time.com/4265312/paris-attacks-salah-abdeslam-how-he-was-caught/). “They should be able to do whatever they have to do to get him to give the information,” he said. “Waterboarding would be fine.” During the interview, Trump said he thinks torture is an effective way of obtaining information. “If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than water boarding,” he said. “You have to get the information from these people.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4267390/donald-trump-responds-brussels-attack/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4267390/donald-trump-responds-brussels-attack/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Calls for Stricter U.S. Borders After Brussels Attack","datePublished":"2016-03-22T12:41:42.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T15:50:03.000Z","description":"Trump: authorities should \"do a lot more than waterboarding\" to get information","url":"https://time.com/4267390/donald-trump-responds-brussels-attack/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c58b4f43180598a/69888bf9ab6d7706c16a8f0f/gettyimages-516871656.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c58b4f43180598a/69888bf9ab6d7706c16a8f0f/gettyimages-516871656.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presidential Candidates Speak At The AIPAC Policy Conference","caption":"Presidential Candidates Speak At The AIPAC Policy Conference","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4267390/donald-trump-responds-brussels-attack/","name":"Donald Trump Calls for Stricter U.S. Borders After Brussels Attack"}}]}] ```