Tom Cotton: NYC Terror Attack 'Entirely Preventable' if Not for Diversity Visa Lottery Program

The terrorist attack that left eight individuals dead was “entirely preventable” if not for the Diversity Visa Lottery, the program used by the terror suspect to enter the United States, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) says.

The Diversity Visa Lottery gives out 50,000 visas every year to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries, including those with known terrorist problems – such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.

Sayfullo Saipov — the 29-year-old man who allegedly mowed down pedestrians in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City — entered the U.S. in 2010 from Uzbekistan under the Diversity Visa Lottery before obtaining a Green Card, as Breitbart News reported.

“Yesterday’s attack was an outrage, especially because it was entirely preventable,” Cotton said in a statement. “The diversity visa lottery program has long been deeply flawed, but now we see very clearly how it’s a threat to our national security.”

“Senator Perdue and I have been working with our colleagues to eliminate this program, and this latest revelation makes our efforts only more urgent,” Cotton said, referring to his legal immigration-cutting legislation that President Trump has previously endorsed. “I call upon my colleagues to pass the RAISE Act as soon as possible. We can’t afford to wait any longer to fix our immigration system.”

Under Cotton’s RAISE Act, which Democrats, the mainstream media, open borders organizations and the big business lobby have slammed, the Diversity Visa Lottery program would be eliminated, while also reducing legal immigration levels by 50 percent to raise wages for American workers.

In a similar statement, Perdue called the Diversity Visa Lottery “a big fraud” to Fox News‘ Laura Ingraham.

“It’s fraught with fraud, itself,” Perdue said. “It has Social Security fraud, identity fraud. But worse than that Laura, is that 30 percent of the visas given out under this system go to countries that are identified by [the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency] as harboring and promoting terrorism.”