Trump calls out Schumer for diversity program that brought Manhattan terrorist to America and HERE’S WHY…

by The Right Scoop

Since the terrorist attack yesterday, it’s become known that Saipov immigrated to the US via a diversity immigration program that was an idea by Schumer back in 1990. Trump didn’t waste any time in jumping on Twitter to attack Schumer over it:



While you can argue about Trump’s timing and tact, he isn’t wrong about Schumer and this diversity program. I dug up this summary of how Schumer’s diversity program came to be back in 1990, according to Numbers USA:

Led by its hired Washington lobbyist, the Irish Immigration Reform Movement (IIRM) began working directly with Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his staff to draft a diversity program that differed significantly from those considered up to that point. The Schumer proposal would have set aside 75,000 visas each year for a new category of “diversity immigrants.” Under this proposal, the world would be separated into “high-admission regions” and “low-admission regions,” within which would be “high-admission states” and “low-admission states.” High-admission states would be those from which at least 25,000 immigrants had come to the United States within the most recent five-year period. While no state would be allocated more than seven percent of available visas, the bulk of visas would go to low-admission states in low-admission regions, with a much smaller number allotted to low-admission states in high-admission regions. Any visas not used by the state to which they were allocated would go to the remaining eligible states.

The regions used in the Schumer proposal were: 1) Africa; 2) Asia; 3) Europe; 4) North America, excluding Mexico; 5) Oceania; and 6) South America, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The largest beneficiaries undoubtedly would be Europe and Africa, since Asia and Latin America would be high-admission regions and Oceania and North America were unlikely to send large numbers of immigrants in any case. Moreover, by lumping together countries that send vastly different numbers of immigrants, the plan seriously disadvantaged some “low-admission states” that fell into a “high-admission region.” Finally, thanks to major pressure from the IIRM, Rep. Schumer agreed that Northern Ireland would be treated as a separate state for purposes of visa allocation. Irish immigrants thus would get 14 percent of the available visas, instead of seven percent.

However, Rep. Schumer refused to include in his bill a program specifically targeted at legalizing the large numbers of illegal Irish immigrants in the United States, which was a major goal of IIRM. So IIRM went to House Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Bruce Morrison (D-Conn.) for help. In March 1990, Rep. Morrison introduced a bill, H.R. 4300, with a different version of Rep. Schumer’s diversity program. The Morrison bill would have allocated 75,000 visas per year for “Diversity Immigrants,” but only for a period of three years. One-third of those visas, however, were to be reserved for illegal immigrants who would have qualified for the diversity program included in the 1986 law. Much to the disappointment of the IIRM, though, Rep. Morrison refused to treat Northern Ireland as a separate state under his plan.

The House Immigration Subcommittee adopted a diversity program that represented a compromise between the Schumer and Morrison proposals. The approved version of H.R. 4300 included a “Diversity Transition Program,” which set aside up to 25,000 visas per year for three years for illegal immigrants who would have qualified for the 1986 diversity program. Beginning in 1994, 55,000 visas would be allocated each year to a new, permanent category of “Diversity Immigrants,” as defined by the Schumer bill.

Hoping to get the bill passed by the full House before the close of the 101st Congress, the IIRM turned up the heat. In one day, members of the IIRM visited more than two-thirds of the offices of members of the House of Representatives. Even the Irish Embassy sent staff members to lobby members of Congress. Their efforts paid off. Before floor consideration of H.R. 4300, the House Rules Committee adopted rules to limit the number and subject matter of amendments to the bill; amendments to the Diversity Transition Program were among those that were precluded. The bill passed the House by a vote of 231 to 192, after less than two days of debate, and with both diversity measures intact.

So there you have it. The diversity immigration program is literally Schumer’s baby which brought Saipov to the US in the first place.

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey at Hotair links to us, but points out that this diversity program wasn’t originally Schumer’s idea:

The Right Scoop says that a Numbers USA brief shows that the DV program was “Schumer’s baby” in the House version of the bill. Even that brief, though, shows that the DV program had already been proposed, and that Schumer was proposing a wider version of it in the House via the Immigration subcommittee. The eventual bill split the difference between those proposals. Did Schumer have some impact on it? Yes, but it didn’t start with him, and others had a lot more to do with its eventual bipartisan passage. Plus as noted above, there’s zero evidence that the DV lottery has turned into a terrorist sieve.

It’s true that the program wasn’t Schumer’s idea originally, but he did seek to widen it as Ed points out. While Ed doesn’t like my characterization of this as ‘Schumer’s baby’, I stand by it given Schumer’s efforts here. But he is also right to point out that the lottery in of itself hasn’t become one big entry way for terrorists…yet.

That said, Mark Levin explains that these lottery programs must be gutted:


Comment Policy: Please read our comment policy before making a comment. In short, please be respectful of others and do not engage in personal attacks. Otherwise we will revoke your comment privileges.