Donald Trump Announces End to Green Card Lottery Following New York Incident

In response to the recent deadly incident in New York City, the President of the United States announced on Wednesday, November 1, that he would end the U.S. green card lottery program. The Uzbek citizen accused of the terrorist act had received his green card through this program in 2010. Sayfullah Habibullaevich Saipov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, drove a pickup truck into a bike lane and struck pedestrians and several cyclists in Manhattan, leaving at least eight victims in his wake. According to New York police, Saipov acted 'in the name of [the Islamic State] ISIS.' One day later, Donald Trump told reporters that he was starting the process to end the green card lottery program. According to the French news agency, he further promised to 'get rid of this lottery program as soon as possible.' The U.S. green card lottery program, signed into law in 1990 by then-President George H.W. Bush, allows about 50,000 people from around the world to immigrate to the United States each year through a lottery system. In 2015, over 14 million people of various nationalities registered for this lottery, with more than 49,000 winners announced, including 2,524 from Uzbekistan. However, Trump's threat to end the green card lottery comes as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stated that the suspect had 'radicalized in the U.S.' and there were no prior indications of connections to terrorist groups. The official German news agency also reported from Washington that Trump referred to the terrorist suspect as an 'animal' and suggested he could be sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. However, under the U.S. judicial system, because the crime occurred on U.S. soil, the suspect must be tried in the U.S. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, continuing the New York police's information about the 'terrorist' incident, news agencies reported that the Uzbek immigrant acted 'in the name of the Islamic State' and based on information available on the internet. According to John Miller, the deputy police commissioner, Saipov left 'notes in Arabic' at the crime scene stating that ISIS 'will last forever.' This police official indicated that Saipov had apparently been planning this act for several weeks and had based his planning 'exactly' on information published by ISIS on social media. This is the first time since September 11, 2001, that a similar terrorist attack has occurred in New York City. Additionally, this is the first 'terrorist' attack using a vehicle on U.S. soil, resembling recent attacks in European cities that have left dozens dead. Such attacks occurred last year in London, Nice, and Berlin.