Dr. Zuhdi Jasser reacted to President Trump’s call to end the visa lottery and chain migration programs, in the wake of terror attacks in the United States.
Jasser, the president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said that America “absolutely need[s] to clamp down on our method of immigration.”
He said that he is “baffled” - as the son of political refugees who fled to the U.S. - that there is no mechanism to vet people on the basis of “merit or ideology.”
Jasser said the man who mowed down people with a truck in a bike lane along Route 9A in New York City came as a lottery visa winner from Uzbekistan.
The man who attempted to detonate an IED in the Port Authority Bus Terminal’s subway station concourse was the recipient of chain migration policy, Jasser said.
“We need to overhaul our program so it is based on merit,” Jasser said, adding that Trump should reach out to Muslim “reformists” who reject theocracy.
He dismissed claims from the left that Trump’s border wall and travel ban are based on religion, saying that America’s founders were Christians who embraced God but did not govern as theocrats.
“I want Muslims who believe in the American contract to come here,” Jasser, who said he is Muslim, added.
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