Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen touted the end of family-based mass immigration and the Diversity Visa Lottery program after it was revealed that an alleged suicide-bomber in New York City gained entry to the United States by taking advantage of the current legal immigration system.
On Monday, 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, a Bangladesh national, injured three individuals when he allegedly tried to detonate a suicide bomb in New York City in a planned terrorist attack.
Ullah was able to enter the U.S. in 2011 as a foreign relative after one of his family members was awarded a Green Card in the Visa Lottery, Breitbart News reported.
Chain migration allows new immigrants to the U.S. to bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives with them.
Ullah came to the U.S. through the F43 visa, allowing him to obtain a Green Card simply because his father’s brother or sister had recently been allotted a visa under the Visa Lottery, Breitbart News reported.
Every year, the Visa Lottery — championed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — gives out 50,000 visas to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries, including those with known terrorist problems – such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.
In joint remarks with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Nielsen cited President Trump’s “immigration priorities” for the first time, noting the White House’s demands for the GOP-led Congress to end chain migration and the Visa Lottery.
Nielsen said:
Finally, the Administration is looking to modify our immigration system to end misguided and outdated visa systems like the extended family chain migration and the diversity visa lottery. Instead we should focus on a merit based system that would better support our economy and assimilation of new immigrants.
Terrorists should realize from the past two attacks in New York that they will fail. Our people are resilient. Americans will not be intimidate, and they have the resolve to bring these fanatics to justice.
Despite now having support to end chain migration from members of the Republican establishment — like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — House Speaker Paul Ryan and McConnell have yet to take up the pro-American immigration agenda of the Trump administration.
A Senate immigration package, crafted by a handful of lawmakers including Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. David Perdue (R-GA), and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), would end chain migration, but couples it with an amnesty for nearly 800,000 illegal aliens shielded from deportation under the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The SECURE Act, as Breitbart News reported, would offer three-year work permits to DACA illegal aliens while ending chain migration. An amnesty for illegal aliens, no matter if it is attached to pro-American legal immigration reforms, would be a betrayal to Trump’s core base of supporters.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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