Hours after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for three explosions that ripped through the Belgian capital of Brussels on Tuesday, killing at least 30 people and wounding hundreds more, Ted Cruz proposed expanding the power of law enforcement to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized,” drawing swift condemnation from civil-rights groups.

“For years, the west has tried to deny this enemy exists out of a combination of political correctness and fear,” Cruz said in a statement shortly after the terrorist attacks. “Our European allies are now seeing what comes of a toxic mix of migrants who have been infiltrated by terrorists and isolated, radical Muslim neighborhoods.”

Arguing that “the days of the United States voluntarily surrendering to the enemy to show how progressive and enlightened we can be are at an end,” the Republican presidential candidate called on the U.S. government to bar all refugees from countries with “a significant al Qaida or ISIS presence,” secure the U.S.-Mexico border, and empower police to monitor Muslim neighborhoods. In a second statement clarifying his remarks, he added that police should have “every tool available” and drew an explicit contrast with New York mayor Bill de Blasio, whom he said “succumbed to unfounded criticisms and eliminated efforts of law enforcement to work with Muslim communities to stop radical Islamic terrorism.” (The Cruz campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

Cruz’s statements recalled a similar reaction among conservatives in the wake of last year’s terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, which led to a marked rise in Islamophobia and fear of another attack. Days later, Donald Trump called for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, a policy that polls show is supported by the vast majority of Republican voters. Trump also suggested that mosques in the U.S. might need to be shut down, a sentiment echoed by Florida senator Marco Rubio.

At the time, Cruz rejected a proposal by Trump to register and track Muslim-Americans. “I’m not a fan of government registries of American citizens,” he said. “The 1st Amendment protects religious liberty, and I’ve spent the past several decades defending the religious liberty of every American.” Cruz appeared to distance himself from that position on Tuesday with his call to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods,” outflanking the Republican front-runner by staking out rhetorical ground to his right.

Democrats, civil-rights organizations, and Muslim advocacy groups were quick to criticize Cruz’s comments. “It just shows you what happens when you appoint policy advisers like Frank Gaffney and Jerry Boykin to your team,” Council on American-Islamic Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper told The Washington Post, identifying two Cruz foreign-policy advisers who are noted Islamophobes. Gaffney, who was previously excommunicated from respectable Republican circles for his paranoid anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, appeared to have his fingerprints all over Cruz’s more hard-line position on Islam: the former Reagan-era Pentagon official once described Dearborn, Michigan, as a dangerous, Muslim-only “ghetto enclave.” Pressed on Monday by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to comment on Gaffney’s past statements, which include claiming that Saddam Hussein was behind the Oklahoma City bombing, Cruz called his adviser “someone I respect” and “a serious thinker.”