Trump says will terminate US green card lottery after NY attack

Trump said he wants to move US immigration to a “merit-based system” and not allow immigrants to bring their extended families.

“We want to get rid of chain migration,” he said.

Republicans in Congress have tried for several years to eliminate the visa lottery program, but were stifled by Democratic resistance.

Trump blamed the program on Chuck Schumer, the senior Democratic senator from New York, even though it was resoundingly supported by both parties and signed into law in 1990 by a Republican president, George HW Bush.

“The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based” immigration, Trump tweeted.

– Few US attacks by immigrants –

Tuesday’s incident was the second time the lottery has been tied to a jihadist attack inside the Untied States. In July 2002, an Egyptian man whose wife entered the country on the green card program shot two people dead at the ticket counter for El Al, the Israeli airline.

Otherwise, Trump’s immigration crackdown would not have prevented any of the deadly jihadist attacks inside the United States over the past 16 years.

Most have been perpetrated by US-born and radicalized perpetrators. And most have family ties to countries not covered by Trump’s travel bans — Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and others.

But Republicans expressed strong support for Trump’s move.

“Yesterday’s attack was an outrage, especially because it was entirely preventable,” said Senator Tom Cotton.

“The diversity visa lottery program has long been deeply flawed, but now we see very clearly how it’s a threat to our national security.”

Schumer rejected Trump’s stance. “I have always believed and continue to believe that immigration is good for America,” he said in a statement.

And New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Trump had politicized the situation.

“That was a bipartisan law that was passed that had basically no relevance to the facts of this situation,” he said.

“As I said before, you play into the hands of the terrorists to the extent you disrupt and divide and frighten people in this society. And the tone now should be the exact opposite.”