PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP WANTS TIGHTENED IMMIGRATION LAWS AFTER NYC ATTACK
A would-be suicide bomber’s rush-hour blast in the heart of
the New York City subway system failed to cause the bloodshed he intended,
authorities said, but it gave new fuel to President Donald Trump’s push to
limit immigration.
Hours after Monday’s explosion in an underground passageway
connecting two of Manhattan’s busiest stations, Trump cited the background of
the alleged bomber in renewing his call for closer scrutiny of foreigners who
come to the country and less immigration based on family ties.
US President Donald Trump has said America must "fix" its immigration system following a bomb attack in New York City, which has left at least four people injured.
Trump called on Congress to revise the country's chain
migration policy, which allows immigrants to sponsor other relatives' entry
into the US, in a White House statement on Monday.
The man arrested in the bombing, Akayed Ullah — who told investigators
he wanted to retaliate for American action against Islamic State extremists —
came to the US from Bangladesh in 2011 on a visa available to certain relatives
of US citizens.
“Today’s terror suspect entered our country through
extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security,”
Trump said in a statement that called for various changes to the immigration
system. Earlier, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump’s
proposed policies “could have prevented this.”
In a scenario New York had dreaded for years, Ullah strapped
on a crude pipe bomb with Velcro and plastic ties, slipped unnoticed into the
nation’s busiest subway system and set off the device, authorities said.
The device didn’t work as intended; authorities said Ullah,
27, was the only person seriously wounded. But the attack sent frightened
commuters fleeing through a smoky passageway, and three people suffered
headaches and ringing ears from the first bomb blast in the subway in more than
two decades.
“This is one of my nightmares ... a terrorist attack in the
subway system,” Governor Andrew Cuomo told cable channel NY1. “The good news
is: We were on top of it.”
Ullah was being treated for burns to his hands and abdomen
but spoke to investigators from his hospital bed, law enforcement officials
said. He was “all over the place” about his motive but indicated he wanted to
avenge what he portrayed as US aggression against the Islamic State group, a
law enforcement official said.
The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the blast.
Ullah’s low-tech bomb used explosive powder, a nine-volt
battery, a Christmas light and matches, the officials said. Investigators said
the suspect was seen on surveillance footage igniting the bomb.
In the end, it wasn’t powerful enough to turn the pipe into
deadly shrapnel, the officials said.
Law enforcement officials said Ullah looked at IS propaganda
online but is not known to have any direct contact with the militants and
probably acted alone. Cuomo said there was no evidence, so far, of other bombs
or a larger plot. The Democrat said officials were exploring whether Ullah had
been on authorities’ radar, but there was no indication yet that he was.
The attack came less than two months after eight people died
near the World Trade Center in a truck attack that, authorities said, was
carried out by an Uzbek immigrant who admired the Islamic State group.
Since 1965, America’s immigration policy has centered on
giving preference to people with advanced education or skills, or people with
family ties to U.S. citizens and, in some cases, legal permanent residents.
Citizens have been able to apply for spouses, parents, children, siblings and
the siblings’ spouses and minor children; the would-be immigrants are then
screened by U.S. officials to determine whether they can come.
Trump’s administration has called for a “merit-based”
immigration system that would limit family-based green cards to spouses and
minor children.
Ullah lived with his father, mother and brother in a Brooklyn
neighborhood with a large Bangladeshi community, residents said. He was
licensed to drive a livery cab between 2012 and 2015, but the license was
allowed to lapse, according to law enforcement officials and New York City’s
Taxi and Limousine Commission.
His family was “deeply saddened” by the attack but also
“outraged by the way we have been targeted by law enforcement,” the family said
in a statement sent by the New York Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations. A teenage relative was pulled out of class and questioned in school
without a parent, guardian or lawyer, the statement said.
Security cameras captured the attacker walking casually
through a crowded passageway when the bomb went off around 7:20am A plume of
white smoke cleared to show the man sprawled on the ground and commuters
scattering.
Port Authority police said officers found the man injured on
the ground, with wires protruding from his jacket and the device strapped to
his torso. They said he was reaching for a cellphone and they grabbed his
hands.
The last bomb blast in the subway system was believed to be
in December 1994, when an explosive made from mayonnaise jars and batteries
wounded 48 people in a car in lower Manhattan. Prosecutors said unemployed
computer programmer Edward Leary set off the explosion to try to extort $2
million from the city’s transit agency; he claimed insanity. He was convicted
of attempted murder and sentenced to 94 years in prison.
NEWS SOURCE:
AP, New York
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