President Donald Trump, less than 24 hours after a 29-year-old Uzbek national allegedly drove a truck down a bike path and killed at least eight people, blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats for immigration policies he claims allowed the suspect to enter the United States.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, Trump turned his focus from comforting those impacted in New York and focused on advocating for the tougher immigration laws that defined his 2016 campaign.
"The terrorist came into our country through what is called the "Diversity Visa Lottery Program," a Chuck Schumer beauty," Trump tweeted. "I want merit based."
Minutes later, he added: "We are fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get MUCH tougher (and smarter)."
Trump's initial Twitter response to the attack labeled the attacker a "very sick and deranged person" and offered his "thoughts, condolences and prayers to the victims and families of the New York City terrorist attack." Trump later tweeted that he was ordering his Department of Homeland Security to "step up our already Extreme Vetting Program."
It was not clear what program the President was referring to. Reached Tuesday night, DHS referred all questions on the "vetting" order to the White House, which did not respond to questions. A message left with Schumer's office seeking response Wednesday morning was not immediately returned.
Controversial program
The diversity visa has been a point of contention for years. The 50,000 visas, distributed by random selection among countries where there is a low rate of immigration to the US, were originally designed to diversify the pool of immigrants to the US. The visas offer immigrants green cards, permanent legal residence and a path to citizenship.
Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue have introduced a bill, endorsed by Trump, that would eliminate the diversity lottery and certain categories of family-based green cards, and then would transform the remaining employment-based visas into a point system that favors heavily highly skilled, highly educated, English-speaking immigrants.
But while there is consensus around needing to reform the process, limited support exists even within the GOP for Cotton and Perdue's bill.
Schumer was a key shaper of the 1990 legislation that created the program, but also played a lead part in the 2013 Gang of Eight bill that that passed the Senate on a wide bipartisan basis and included removing the diversity lottery program. The bill moved those visas elsewhere in the system and introduced a merit system that took into account multiple factors like family and work skills.
The Cotton-Perdue bill would roughly halve the number of green cards overall per year, a point of contention for many Democrats and Republicans alike, and wouldn't easily allow for low skilled immigrants to come to the US permanently, another sticking point for many.
Right-wing sites blame Schumer
Tuesday's terror attack in New York was the city's deadliest since 9/11. Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov drove a rented van down a bike path, law enforcement sources have said. The attack killed six victims instantly, while two others died later. New York politicians and officials quickly labeled the incident a terror attack.
Right-wing blogs and publications began blaming Schumer's immigration policies on Tuesday night and Trump's comments track with much of what was written.
"Blame Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer," read a post from the Gateway Pundit.
Breitbart, the right-wing publication run by Steve Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, was leading with a story about the Diversity Visa Lottery Program, citing an ABC New York story that reported Saipov came to the United States through the program.
Turning to immigration politics shortly after a terrorist attack has become a pattern for Trump.
After a deadly mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, in 2015, then candidate-Trump called for the "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."
On Wednesday, Democrats slammed Trump for quickly turning to immigration after the terror attack.
"This has become the pattern for President Trump, dating back to the campaign," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, told MSNBC on Wednesday morning. "No matter where an attack happens around the world, whether it's in the United States, Europe, he immediately goes to questions about immigration."
