Trump calls to end visa program, cites NYC attack

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would consider sending "this animal" arrested after the terrorist attack in New York to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and called on Congress to cancel a long-standing immigration program that he blamed for allowing the man into the country.

A day after authorities accused an immigrant from Uzbekistan of plowing a pickup along a crowded bicycle path in Manhattan, killing eight people, Trump denounced the U.S. criminal justice system as "a joke" and "a laughingstock." Responding to questions by reporters, he said he was open to transferring the suspect from civilian courts into the military system set up for foreign terrorists.

"I would certainly consider that," he said at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting. "Send him to Gitmo, I would certainly consider that, yes."

No one arrested on U.S. soil has ever been sent to Guantanamo Bay, and no one captured on foreign soil has been sent there since 2008.

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Authorities called the attack in New York on Tuesday evening the city's deadliest terrorist incident since Sept. 11, 2001. The driver, who shouted "Allahu akbar," was shot by a police officer and was in critical condition on Tuesday night. The suspect was identified as Sayfullo Saipov, who came to the United States in 2010 from Uzbekistan and has a green card that permits permanent legal residency. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that he arrived through the diversity visa program.

The remarks Trump had outlined in advance focused on immigration and what he called an excess of political correctness.

"I am today starting the process of terminating the diversity lottery program," he said. "I'm going to ask Congress to immediately initiate work to get rid of this program."

"Diversity lottery -- sounds nice," he added. "It's not nice. It's not good. It hasn't been good. We've been against it."

He added, "We have to get much less politically correct. We're so politically correct that we're afraid to do anything."

Earlier Wednesday, Trump called the visa program "a Chuck Schumer beauty" -- referring to the Senate's Democratic leader.

Schumer fired back from the Senate floor, accusing Trump of "politicizing" the tragedy.

Trump has backed legislation that would curb legal immigration and shift the nation toward a system that would place an emphasis on merit and skills over family ties.

The comments followed Trump's Tuesday night statement that he had ordered the Department of Homeland Security "to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program." Trump's policy entails more stringent investigative measures intended to identify would-be immigrants who may sympathize with extremists or pose a national security risk to the United States.

Officials could not elaborate on what new measures Trump was referring to in his tweet hours after the attack.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said that, since that tweet, the president had spoken several times with members of his national security team to "look and see" what more can be done.

"But," she said, "we have put in place executive orders already since the president's taken office that help go as far as we can at this point."

The diversity visa program provides up to 50,000 visas annually by lottery. Applicants must have high school diplomas or meet work experience requirements.

It was created as part of a bipartisan immigration bill introduced by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and signed into law by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

Schumer, a New York Democrat who was a member of the House of Representatives at the time, proposed a program for "diversity immigrants" in a bill he offered earlier that year.

Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Schumer said he has "always believed that immigration is good for America."

He also compared Trump's response to the deadly attack with President George. W. Bush's after 9/11.

"President Trump, where is your leadership?" Schumer asked.

He said Trump actually had proposed cutting anti-terrorism funding in his most recent budget.

The midyear budget proposal from Trump called for cutting more than a half-billion dollars from "critical counterterrorism programs" administered by Homeland Security, according to a congressional report.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said on Twitter that Trump was unfairly blaming Schumer for the diversity visa program. Flake, one of Trump's chief Republican foes in Congress, said Schumer was among a bipartisan group of eight senators who proposed eliminating the program three years ago as part of a broader bipartisan bill to overhaul U.S. immigration laws.

Flake, who served on that "Gang of Eight" with Schumer, said, "I know. I was there."

The immigration bill ultimately failed in the GOP-led House after passing the Senate in June 2013, 68-32, with 14 Republicans joining Democrats.

Information for this article was contributed by Peter Baker of The New York Times; by Derek Hawkins, Samantha Schmidt, J. Freedom du Lac, Ed O'Keefe and Mark Berman of The Washington Post; and by Catherine Lucey and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press.

A Section on 11/02/2017