© AP/Lai Seng Sin
The Bangladesh-born terror suspect who allegedly attempted to detonate a suicide-bomb in New York was able to enter the United States as a foreign relative of an immigrant, extended-family member who had won a visa to the U.S. under the Diversity Visa Lottery.
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.
In a statement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 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.
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.
As
Breitbart News reported, Ullah was able to obtain a visa as the nephew of his Visa Lottery relative. This process of extended-family mass immigration to the U.S. is known as "chain migration."
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.
Under the Visa Lottery, 14,869 Bangladeshi nationals entered the U.S. between 2007 and 2012, as
Breitbart News reported.
- 3,518 Visa Lottery winners in 2007
- 2,286 Visa Lottery winners in 2008
- 2,663 Visa Lottery winners in 2009
- 3,017 Visa Lottery winners in 2010
- 3,090 Visa Lottery winners in 2011
- 295 Visa Lottery winners in 2012
Since 2013, Bangladesh was thrown off the list of foreign countries eligible for the Visa Lottery because the country became one of the largest immigrant-sending countries to the U.S., with the number of chain migrants arriving from Bangladesh more than doubling between 2005 and 2016,
Breitbart News reported.
Ullah is the second terrorist in less than three months to have been allowed to enter the U.S. because of the Visa Lottery.
Suspected ISIS-inspired New York City terrorist, Uzbek national 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, who is accused of murdering at least eight individuals,
entered the U.S. in 2010 by winning one of the 50,000 visas randomly allotted in the Visa Lottery.
Researchers with the Center for Immigration Studies have
estimated that the impact of the Visa Lottery coupled with chain migration has led to a flow of nearly five million foreign nationals arriving in the U.S. since 1994, a population that is larger than the city of Los Angeles, California.
Comment: Trump and supporters have been attacking the idea of the 'immigration lottery' by highlighting possible links to terrorism:
While people are understandably on edge due to terrorist attacks, and while immigration policy is probably in urgent need of reform, identifying immigration as the cause of terrorism might be too simplistic.
It is expected that within a large pool of immigrants some will have extremist ideologies, and out of those, some may try to carry out attacks. But if the intent is to minimize both immigration and extremism, then a revision of foreign imperialistic policy and the debt-driven global economic system is in order. Less imperial adventures and interference in the Middle East and Asia means less wars, a higher standard of living for the locals and more space for secular and moderate governments.
Syria is a good example: Europe would not have seen a mass migration inflow from that country if NATO and the Gulf States had not supported so-called 'rebels' (mercenaries and yihadists) in their fight against Assad.
Update: The news has prompted Trump to re-affirm his call to end "chain migration". He issued a
statement yesterday saying:
"Today's terror suspect entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security," Trump said. "America must fix its lax immigration system, which allows far too many dangerous, inadequately vetted people to access our country."
"Congress must end chain migration," the president emphasized, referring to the program whereby immigrants enter the US through the sponsorship of relatives already established in the country.
Trump also called on Congress to "act on my Administration's other proposals to enhance domestic security, including increasing the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers."
He stated that Congress needs to enhance "the arrest and detention authorities for immigration officers" and end the "fraud and abuse in our immigration system."
Comment: Trump and supporters have been attacking the idea of the 'immigration lottery' by highlighting possible links to terrorism:
It is expected that within a large pool of immigrants some will have extremist ideologies, and out of those, some may try to carry out attacks. But if the intent is to minimize both immigration and extremism, then a revision of foreign imperialistic policy and the debt-driven global economic system is in order. Less imperial adventures and interference in the Middle East and Asia means less wars, a higher standard of living for the locals and more space for secular and moderate governments.
Syria is a good example: Europe would not have seen a mass migration inflow from that country if NATO and the Gulf States had not supported so-called 'rebels' (mercenaries and yihadists) in their fight against Assad.
Update: The news has prompted Trump to re-affirm his call to end "chain migration". He issued a statement yesterday saying: