Debate intensifies over chain immigration after NY City terror attack

An ISIS-inspired Bangledeshi man strapped a pipe bomb to his chest and tried to blow up one of the busiest subway stations in New York just as the morning commute got underway.  The bomber, who said he was angry at Muslim killings, was the only person seriously injured in the blast.

NBC 4:

When questioned, Ullah allegedly told investigators he intentionally detonated the device in that passageway because he noticed a holiday poster in a corridor nearby and, angry over U.S. bombings in ISIS controlled territory, was inspired by ISIS-style Christmas threats, according to two law enforcement officials.

Ullah allegedly said he intended for it to be a suicide bombing and that he watched Internet ISIS propaganda, read extremist writings and learned how to make bombs through online tutorials. Law enforcement sources have said it didn't appear Ullah had direct contact with the terror group. 

Almost immediately, CAIR got into the act by expressing "outrage" that the cops were doing their job:

"We are heartbroken by the violence that was targeted at our city today, and by the allegations being made against a member of our family," Albert Fox Cahn, the legal director for CAIR New York, stated on behalf of the Ullah family, WABC reported Monday.

"But we are also outraged by the behavior of law enforcement officials who have held children as small as four years old out in the cold and who held a teenager out of high school classes to interrogate him without a lawyer, without his parents," the family said. "These are not the sorts of actions that we expect from our justice system, and we have every confidence that our justice system will find the truth behind this attack and that we will, in the end, be able to learn what occurred today."

Because a Muslim couldn't possibly have tried to blow himself up and take people with him.  So we must rely on the justice system to "find the truth" after the cops found someone at the scene with a hole in his chest where the bomb went off.

According to DHS, Akayed Ullah, a 27-year-old legal immigrant who lived in Brooklyn, is a "[l]awful Permanent Resident from Bangladesh who benefited from extended family chain migration."

Therein lies the politics of this terrorist attack.  Ullah was the beneficiary of an immigration system that allows dozens of a legal immigrants' relatives to migrate to the U.S. and enter legally.  It is a gaping hole in a broken system, and Donald Trump has called for its repeal.

The thinking behind the loophole is that a legal immigrant shouldn't have to leave his wife and children behind when he legally immigrates to the U.S.  But the program has gotten wildly out of control as relatives beyond an immigrant's immediate family piggyback their immigration on one person.

Obviously, the vetting procedure for the distant relatives of a legal immigrant  is deficient.

Fox News:

That prompted White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to note that President Trump has railed against so-called "chain migration," through which dozens of an immigrant's relatives can enter the U.S. simply because their family member made it.

"The president's policy has called for an end to chain migration," Sanders said. "If that had been in place, that would have prevented this individual from coming to the United States."

Trump, in a statement, blamed the attack on America's "lax immigration system, which allows far too many dangerous, inadequately vetted people to access our country."

"Today's terror suspect entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security," the statement read. "My Executive action to restrict the entry of certain nationals from eight countries, which the Supreme Court recently allowed to take effect, is just one step forward in securing our immigration system. Congress must end chain migration."

"The terrible harm that this flawed system inflicts on America's security and economy has long been clear. I am determined to improve our immigration system to put our country and our people first," the statement continued.

It was discovered after the Halloween terror attack in New York that the perpetrator, Sayfullo Saipov, entered the U.S. through the State Department's Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.  Trump says enough is enough:

"We have now seen two terrorist attacks in New York City in less than two months that were carried out by people who came here as the result of our failed immigration policies that do not serve the national interest – the diversity lottery and chain migration," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Monday. "It is a failure of logic and sound policy not to adopt a merit-based immigration system."

It comes down to a basic question of fairness.  Millions of people around the world are waiting to come to the U.S. legally, while some are granted entry because they may be distantly related to an immigrant already here, or they are allowed in because of someone's idea of "diversity."  No thought is given to what they can contribute to the U.S.  We don't know if they are connected to criminal gangs or terrorists.  Trump wants a "merit-based" immigration system because it's the fairest means of deciding who gets to come and who doesn't, while also having the benefit of being able to more thoroughly vet the new arrivals.

Standing in the way of these simple reforms are Democrats.  How many more terrorist attacks must we endure because the Democrats are playing politics with the system?  They won't stop until we start placing the blame for these attacks where it belongs – on the party that advocates for virtual open borders.

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