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Rabat – After the car attack in New York City that killed eight and injured 11 others on Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump called Congress to cancel the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, which he blamed for allowing the driver into the country.
At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump announced that he has started the process of ending the program also known as the green card lottery.
The terrorist came into our country through what is called the “Diversity Visa Lottery Program,” a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2017
“I am today starting the process of terminating the diversity lottery program,” he said. “I’m going to ask Congress to immediately initiate work to get rid of this program.”
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program chooses up to 50,000 individuals per year at random to receive a resident visa, which gives the recipient permanent residency in the US.
In a series of tweets after the attack, the US president called for the immigration program to be replaced with a merit-based system, saying “The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based.”
We are fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get MUCH tougher (and smarter). @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2017
In another tweet, he wrote, “We are fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get MUCH tougher (and smarter).”
Trump told reporters that he was open to transferring the suspect, who was identified by the police as an immigrant from Uzbekistan, from civilian courts to Guantánamo Bay, the military detainment camp set up for foreign terrorists.
“I would certainly consider that,” he said. “Send him to Gitmo, I would certainly consider that, yes.”
A week after becoming the president of the US in January, Trump signed an executive order that temporarily barred entry to people from seven Muslim-majority countries, a move that has been challenged legally and is due before the Supreme Court in the coming weeks.
Now, the US president has taken the attack as an opportunity to reinforce his anti-immigrant policies, accusing Senator Schumer, a New York Democrat, of “helping to import Europe’s problems.”
Schumer replied in a tweet that “it’s not too soon to politicize a tragedy.”
The American Civil Liberties Union civil rights group said the term “extreme vetting,” which has been repeatedly called for by Trump, was a “euphemism for discriminating against Muslims.”
