Trump vows to end green card lottery
NEW YORK TERROR SUSPECT ENTERED US ON ‘DIVERSITY VISA’
U S President Donald Trump yesterday vowed he will terminate the green card lottery programme and called for tougher immigration measures based on “merit” after the deadly truck attack in New York City.
Trump said earlier on Twitter that the driver in Tuesday’s attack “came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Programme,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty” — a reference to the Senate’s Democratic leader.
Schumer fired back from the Senate floor, accusing Trump of “politicising” the tragedy.
The House and Senate judiciary committees said yesterday that Sayfullo Saipov, 29, the suspect in Tuesday’s attack that killed eight people, entered the United States on a so-called diversity visa from Uzbekistan in 2010.
“According to reports to my office, Saipov is a lawful permanent resident who immigrated to the United States from Uzbekistan on a diversity visa over five years ago,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wrote in a letter to the secretary of state and the acting secretary of homeland security.
In a separate statement, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte called for the programme to be terminated.
Saipov followed plans laid out by the Daesh terror group and planned the attack weeks in advance, US investigators said yesterday. Police said they had interviewed Saipov, who was shot and arrested by police moments after the rampage in lower Manhattan on Tuesday, in which a rental truck was driven down a riverfront bike path. “It appears that Mr. Saipov had been planning this for a number of weeks,” New York Deputy Police Commissioner John Miller told a news conference.
A driver ploughed a pickup truck down a crowded bike path along the Hudson River in Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring 11 before being shot by a police officer in what officials are calling the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City since September 11.
The rampage ended when the motorist — whom the police identified as Sayfullo Saipov, 29 — smashed into a school bus, jumped out of his truck and ran up and down the highway waving a pellet gun and paintball gun and shouting “Allahu akbar,” [God is great], before he was shot in the abdomen by the officer.
He remained in critical condition on Tuesday evening.
The UAE has condemned the terrorist attack.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation expressed its strong condemnation of the terrorist act, reaffirming the UAE’s strong position in rejecting various forms of violence and terrorism, which target everyone without discrimination and regardless of race or religion.
Handwritten notes
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared the incident a terrorist attack, and federal law enforcement authorities were leading the investigation.
Investigators discovered handwritten notes in Arabic near the truck that indicated allegiance to Daesh, two law enforcement officials said. But investigators had not uncovered evidence of any direct or enabling ties between Saipov and Daesh and were treating the episode as a case of an “inspired” attacker, two counterterrorism officials said.
But US media reported yesterday that Saipov left a note claiming allegiance to Daesh.
De Blasio said at a news conference, “Based on information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians.”
Five of the people killed were Argentine tourists who travelled to New York for a 30-year high school reunion, said a senior official in Santa Fe province, where they were from. Belgian officials said one of those killed and three of the injured were from Belgium.
Saipov came to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010 and had a green card that allowed permanent legal residence. He had apparently lived in Paterson, New Jersey, and Tampa, Florida. An official said he rented the truck from a Home Depot in New Jersey.