Trump vows to terminate green card lottery programme

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would end the popular US green card lottery after a radicalised Uzbek man who entered the country under the programme killed eight people in New York.

“I am starting the process of terminating the diversity lottery program,” Trump told reporters.

“We have to do what’s right to protect our citizens,” he told reporters.

“We will get rid of this lottery program as soon as possible.”

The 1990 programme awards US permanent resident visas to around 50,000 applicants from around the world each year, opening the door as well for members of their broader families to follow them, so-called chain migration.

According to Trump, Sayfullo Saipov, who ploughed a rented truck into cyclists and pedestrians on a New York City bike path Tuesday, came to the country via the program.

Saipov was arrested after being shot by police and officials said he planned to undertake his attack in the name of Daesh for weeks, following online instructions from the terror group.

Trump’s threat would further close the doors to hopeful US immigrants, after slashing the country’s annual refugee intake by more than 50 percent, tightening visa issuance around the world and attempting to ban travellers from 11 countries, most of them with Muslim-majority populations. 

Uzbekistan is not among the 11.

The programme Trump threatened on Wednesday aims to diversify the origins of people granted permanent residence - so-called green cards - in the United States.

In 2015 the green card lottery, applications were received for more than 14 million people, and 49,377 won green cards.  That included 2,524 Uzbeks.

Trump said he wants to move US immigration to a “merit-based system” and not allow immigrants to bring their extended families.

“We want to get rid of chain migration,” he said.

Democrats criticise Trump's decision

But Democrats accused Trump of politicising the incident after the Republican president tried to assign some blame to one of their senior lawmakers, Chuck Schumer.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Schumer said Trump should stop "politicising and dividing America" at times of national tragedy.

Schumer, now Senate Democratic leader, helped create the program in 1990 when he was a member of the House of Representatives, but he was also a member of a group of lawmakers who crafted a bipartisan immigration bill in 2013 that would have done away with the program. 

That bill was passed by the Senate but was killed by the Republican-led House.

In his response, Trump reprised what has been his stance as a White House candidate and as president - that tougher immigration laws should be the first line of defence against such attacks. In Twitter posts on Wednesday, he linked Schumer to the diversity visa program.

"The terrorist came into our country through what is called the 'Diversity Visa Lottery Program,' a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit-based," Trump wrote on Twitter.

In another post, Trump cited an analyst who appeared on a Fox News Channel program, writing, "'Senator Chuck Schumer helping to import Europes problems' said Col.Tony Shaffer. We will stop this craziness!"

Trump has previously called Schumer the Democrats' "head clown," although the president has met with his home state's senator on issues including immigration and federal spending.

In his speech, Schumer said that "instead of politicising and dividing America, which he always seems to do at times of national tragedy, (Trump) should be bringing us together and focusing on the real solution, anti-terrorism funding, which he proposed to cut in his most recent budget."

Schumer added he has always believed that immigration is good for the United States.

"So I am calling on President Trump to rescind his proposed cuts to this vital anti-terrorism funding immediately. Our city relies on this funding, to track potential terrorists, to snuff out attacks," the senator said.

Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, also responding to Trump's remarks, said that by politicising the attack the president played into the hands of terrorists who he said sought to cause disruption and division.