This undated photo provided by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission shows Akayed Ullah, the suspect in the explosion near New York’s Times Square on Monday, Dec. 11, 2017. Ullah is suspected of strapping a pipe bomb to his body and setting off the crude device in a passageway under 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, injuring himself and a few others. (New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission via AP)NEW YORK (AP) – A would-be suicide bomber’s rush-hour blast in the heart of the New York City subway system failed to cause the bloodshed he intended, authorities said, but it gave new fuel to President Donald Trump’s push to limit immigration.
Hours after Monday’s explosion in an underground passageway connecting two of Manhattan’s busiest stations, Trump cited the background of the bomber in renewing his call for closer scrutiny of foreigners who come to the country and less immigration based on family ties.
The man arrested in the bombing, Akayed Ullah – who told investigators he wanted to retaliate for American action against Islamic State extremists – came to the U.S. from Bangladesh in 2011 on a visa available to certain relatives of U.S. citizens.
“Today’s terror suspect entered our country through extended-family chain migration, which is incompatible with national security,” Trump said in a statement that called for various changes to the immigration system. Earlier, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump’s proposed policies “could have prevented this.”
In a scenario New York had dreaded for years, Ullah strapped on a crude pipe bomb with Velcro and plastic ties, slipped unnoticed into the nation’s busiest subway system and set off the device, authorities said.