Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan urged that the U.S. immediately stop taking in Syrian refugees, citing FBI Director James Comey's description of Syria as "a terrorist diaspora" never seen before.

"Director Comey warned the nation last week that the defeat of ISIS soldiers in Syria and Iraq will likely result in their dispersal elsewhere," the Florida Republican noted in a letter to President Obama on Thursday. "The FBI director's warning that the collapse of the caliphate will mean increased attacks in Western Europe and the United States mirrors an alarming consensus among intelligence officials."

Buchanan noted that a spate of recent terrorist attacks, including the bombing of a music festival in Germany and the killing of a priest in France, were committed by refugees from Syria.

"In the context of this clear threat, your goal of admitting 10,000 Syrians as part of a so-called 'surge operation' is extremely troubling," Buchanan said. He further emphasized the fact that the screening process takes 12 to 18 months.

"Terrorists are leaving Syria disguised as refugees and carrying out attacks in the West. The prudent course of action is to halt all admissions of Syrians into the U.S. until the safety of Americans can be guaranteed," Buchanan added.

The message came hours before Obama was set to deliver an address on national security at the Pentagon, right after a National Security Council meeting on the campaign against the Islamic State.

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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Wednesday that the country was on track to admit 10,000 refugees by the end of the fiscal year, with 7,000 already arrived. Johnson called it "a significantly larger number than last year," putting last year's estimate at about 1,600.

In spite of career law enforcement officials, such as Comey, who insist poor vetting procedures are putting Americans at risk, Johnson insisted they were adequate. "In fact, we have added security checks to the process for refugees from certain countries, which I can't really get into publicly," Johnson said.

Buchanan has urged the administration and Homeland Security officials before to institute stronger vetting measures, with one of his proposals including a requirement that security officials scan the social media accounts of refugees for content sympathetic to the Islamic State. That measure has not been adopted.