Trump calls for tougher immigration restrictions after New York City attack

David Jackson | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption NYC reacts to explosion near Port Authority Bus Terminal Mayor Bill de Blasio delivers a press conference regarding the explosion that occurred in New York City on December 11th.

WASHINGTON — President Trump and his aides called for tighter restrictions on immigration Monday after a Bangladesh native living in the U.S. was taken into custody for attempting to carry out a terrorist attack in New York City.

"America must fix its lax immigration system, which allows far too many dangerous, inadequately vetted people to access our country," Trump said in a written statement.

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, "we must protect our borders, we must ensure that individuals entering our country are not coming to do harm to people, and we must move to a merit-based immigration system."

In New York on Monday, police arrested a 27-year-old man accused of setting off a pipe-bomb in a commuter tunnel near Times Square.

The suspect, identified as Akayed Ullah, has been living in Brooklyn since 2011. Ullah came to the U.S. on an F-4 visa available for immigrants with family in the U.S. who are citizens.

In calling for an end to "extended-family chain migration," Trump said, "the terrible harm that this flawed system inflicts on America’s security and economy has long been clear."

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Echoing the White House, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said, "we have now seen two terrorist attacks in New York City in less than two months that were carried out by people who came here as the result of our failed immigration policies that do not serve the national interest—the diversity lottery and chain migration."

A "merit-based" immigration system, Sessions said, would mean "welcoming the best and the brightest and turning away not only terrorists but gang members, fraudsters, drunk drivers, and child abusers."

Trump's immigration proposals have drawn political and legal challenges from critics who say he is targeting all Muslims and Hispanics, and that the United States already has strict screening procedures to weed out potential terrorists.

The administration is putting in place a plan to ban travel from the United States from six predominately Muslim countries. Trump also faces opposition to his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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