This past Tuesday, October 31,2017, a 29-year-old Uzbekistani man by the name of Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov drove a rental pickup truck through a heavily populated bike lane in Lower Manhattan, leaving eight individuals dead and eleven others in serious condition.

Officials then discovered that the act of terrorism was done in the name of ISIS, an extremist group that originated in Iraq in 1999. Their goal is to create a unified, Muslim territory where they are able share their extremist beliefs, they have been doing this by inflicting terror on innocent civilians throughout the world.

Saipov has been living in the United States since 2010, working as an Uber driver and constantly moving to different states along the East Coast. He has also had many run ins with law enforcement during his time here, but mostly traffic violations and small misdemeanors.

Saipov was able to enter the U.S. through the Diversity Visa Lottery, a program that was implemented in the 1990s to add population from countries that are less represented in America. The DVL allows 50,000 visas to be distributed to individuals who have completed applications and are willing to benefit American Society.

Saipov now faces the death penalty,  and his actions this past Tuesday have inspired Trump to advance in making America a more isolationist society. Trump is now planning to terminate the DVL program completely, obliterating chances for plenty of law-abiding, non-extremist immigrants who were planning to enter the United States.

As an immigrant, I don’t believe that completely ending the program is anywhere near solving the issue of terrorism in the U.S.A. There are plenty of cooperative immigrants that use programs like the DVL to make a better life for themselves and their families, this act would further implement the false idea that they’re collectively dangerous and vengeful individuals.

But as a member of Bishop Blanchet, I urge students to show compassion for immigrants in the Seattle area because the vast majority of them are not seeking to annihilate american society as we know it.