Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Tuesday that allowing Middle Eastern refugees to come to the United States increases the risk that they will turn toward radical Islam.

“Think about it — you bring a lot of people from another culture and what they will tend to do is congregate together,” he said, as first reported by BuzzFeed.

“It is a natural thing,” the retired neurosurgeon said on Sirius XM’s “Breitbart News Daily.”

“It makes them much easier targets for radicalization, particularly if you bring them to an environment where a lot of people are resentful of the fact that they’re here,” Carson added. "That’s just going to create incidents that will increase further the instances of radicalization.

“Why would anyone even be thinking about that? We have brains for a particular reason and we ought to use them.”

Carson said America should keep its borders closed to Iraqi and Syrian refugees given the potential for terrorism.

“If we bring a lot of people over here, they’re going to infiltrate them with their people,” he said of terrorist groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“We cannot capitulate in this situation, absolutely not. We are fighting for the safety of America. We are fighting for our children and grandchildren.”

Carson said funding refugee camps in Middle Eastern nations is a better alternative.

“What we are trying to is provide them with is a safe haven until such time as a solution can be arrived at so that they can go home,” he said of displaced Iraqis and Syrians.

“Bringing a few thousand of them here, or 20,000, or 50,000, or whatever, doesn’t even begin to solve the problem.

“All that does is allow some people to pat themselves on the head and say, ‘What nice people we are, how generous and wonderful we are,'” Carson quipped.

“It is much easier for them to integrate into a society that is very similar to the one that they came from than trying to assimilate into the society in America.”

Carson’s remarks follow his trip last weekend to Syrian refugee camps in Jordan. He has repeatedly touted the value of Arab nations sheltering refugees since his tour's conclusion.

President Obama’s plan for resettling at least 10,000 displaced Syrians by next year is under fierce scrutiny amid concerns it may provide a cover for terrorist infiltration.

Republican lawmakers have vowed they may pause the plan until the national tightens its vetting process for incoming refugees.