(Image courtesy of the NY Times)
This is the second attack New York has seen in the past couple months, and one of numerous terrorist attacks post-9/11. Because it is a large metropolitan area and a central symbol of American culture, New York has been the target of terror attacks even predating 9/11. With coverage of other attacks in London, Paris, Barcelona, and countless other cities, the awareness of terrorist attacks has significantly increased, concerning citizens around the globe.
Donald Trump has taken to Twitter with another call to curb immigration, backed by Jeff Sessions. I personally believe in expanding the U.S.'s immigration intake, or alternatively offering aid to refugees of any of the numerous calamities countries face today. While it is important to recognize the threat of terrorism from abroad, it is also important to acknowledge that the U.S. has suffered countless domestic terrorist attacks as well, most notably the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013.
Discussion Questions:
1. What can be done to more effectively protect the U.S. from potential terrorism?
2. Do you agree with Trump's stance on immigration. Why or why not?
3. What can be done to combat domestic terrorism as well as international terrorism?
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32 comments:
One of the bomber's motivations was to express his outrage at Trump's declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. In the past, presidents have avoided taking a stance on this issue due to its complexity and the possibility of increasing anger among the Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Trump's rash decision to give Jerusalem to Israel against the advice of his generals, world leaders, and other advisors led to an act of terrorism in the United States. On one hand, Trump wants to implement policies to keep terrorists out, but on the other hand, by his own words and lack of diplomacy, he invites terrorism and acts of violence. Enforcement of strong immigration policies is important, but so is the need to cultivate an image of the United States as being fair towards, in this case, Palestinians.
Trump wrongly assumes that curbing immigration is the simple solution to terrorism- a highly complicated issue that requires careful navigation and thoroughly assessed, deliberate policy amendments to national security. By asserting gross generalizations and shutting out millions of immigrants who are valuable additions to the American workforce and crucial to maintaining cultural diversification, Trump will only stagnate economic and social progress. Furthermore, enforcing even stricter immigration policy will sour our relations with many of our closest foreign allies and thus create more animosity and terrorism. Rather than terminate humanitarian programs such as DACA, which actually gave disenfranchised minors a chance to stop running and build a life (right to pursue prosperity! A founding principle of this country!), Trump should focus on making America great again by re-opening opportunities for immigrants to enter, thus conveying that America is still a safe and tolerant place.
Because of all the terrorist attacks that have happened, I believe that this is a result of Trump’s personal beliefs as well as his actions to prevent immigrants from coming to the U.S. The attacker, Akayed Ullah, benefitted from chain migration which allowed him to receive a visa because he was extended family. Many critics believe that if chain migration continues, it could cause more attackers to come into the U.S. and cause harm, but I believe that there is more to this. The ending of chain migration would drastically decrease the number of immigrants that receive a green card to stay in the U.S., causing more people to be angry. Furthermore, this change in the system favors immigrants who are highly-skilled, educated, and can speak English which ultimately marginalizes those who do not meet these requirements. Trump’s stance on immigration clearly sparks controversies, especially with those of Muslim descent. Also, because he has influence over the thoughts and actions of citizens, he generates more and more hatred toward a certain race and makes the U.S. out to be a place of danger and favoritism.
As many of the comments said above, blocking millions of immigrants from entering the country because of the actions of a few radicals is unreasonable and will only cause people in foreign countries to view our country in a negative light, once again driving terrorism. In addition, a common thread between many of the recent terrorist attacks in the United States is that the terrorists were radicalized online. While I don't think censorship is the answer, I think there must be some way to prevent radical Islamist groups from swaying so many people to their side through the use of the Internet.
I agree with what others have said so far, and believe that many of Trump's views further divide not only our nation but the international community. It is this division and ill-will that is greatly hurting our nation. The dissatisfaction and unhappiness that can lead to terrorist events such as this are only fueled by our division. If Trump wants to be a truly successful president, he does not necessarily need to change his view on immigration, but he needs to pursue his agenda in a way that will somehow promote peace and unity not only for the American citizens, but for the international community. This unity might not be achieved through his immigration policies, but Trump must work, and work hard, to bring our country back together.
I personally feel that blocking many immigrants will not be effective in preventing radicals from carrying out terrorist attacks. Even if every immigrant is blocked from coming to the USA, all you need is one person to carry out a massive attack. There have been instances of US citizens radicalized into Isis terrorist and I find it hard to find a way to slow down such a large organization. Similar to what Kalena said, banning immigrants will only cause more anger and frustration towards the US.
I'm not sure that there is much that can be done to prevent terrorism besides having security everywhere, but that is not realistic. Even if there were laws to prevent people from getting weapons and bombs, people like the bomber in this story will still just make their own. I'm not sure that reducing the number of immigrants to the US will shed a negative light on us. Some countries have very strict immigration, others have relaxed ones; it doesn't effect how I see that country, as it is their choice on how they want to accept new citizens. In regards to what Kalena said about the removal of chain migration favoring those who are educated, skilled, and can speak english, those all seem like traits that we want to bring into the US. I don't see the problem with having educated citizens with talents, and in my opinion all immigrants here should be able to speak English as it is our national language.
One thing to help protect the US from terrorist attacks is educating citizens on what to do if another bomb strikes near them. Trump shouldn't assume that the immigrants are the ones who are committing these terrorist attacks. It is very difficult to prevent domestic and international attacks in the US, but one idea is to have background checks on people who are able to obtain bombs and other threatening weapons, for example the military.
Trump has constantly insisted that immigration measures must be made more stringent, using these several terrorist attacks as proof. However, I don’t agree with his stance. His travel ban, which includes several countries, did not apply to Bangladesh, where Ullah came from. Therefore, it’s unrealistic to completely ban all immigrants and his ban would not resolve the issue at hand. I agree with Lydia that what Trump needs to focus on is unity, instead of ruling out those who can come and stay in the US as it hasn’t been and isn’t the right resolution.
At this point, there's a lot of reason to believe that curbing immigration won't have a significant effect on preventing terrorist attacks. It seems like the past few attacks have been conducted by current U.S. residents who have pledged allegiance to ISIS. The terrorist group now has enough power to reach and motivate not only Americans, but suspects in other countries. To stop the tragedies, like Orlando and San Bernardino, from happening on our homeland, the US and other powerful countries should band together and dedicate themselves to stopping ISIS at its core in the Middle East.
I do not agree with Trump's stance on immigration. Banning people from coming into this country because of where they are from is not right. You can't assume all middle eastern countries are tied to terrorists groups. Just like you can't assume all muslims are terrorists.
I think it is very important for the US to stand up against terrorism, but I don't think that immigration is the most important issue to focus on in order to combat terrorism. Yes, it is a factor in terrorism, but it is not the only thing that allows for these attacks to happen. Other issues such as gun control and radicalization of citizens via the internet are even more prevalent and threatening to the country. It seems like anybody can buy a gun in the US who wants to, as seen through the multiple mass shootings that have taken place due to mistakes in the process of obtaining deadly weapons. These mistakes should not happen, and they allow for tragedies such as this to happen. Additionally, radicalization of individuals through websites such as Twitter and Youtube is a major threat, yet the Trump Administration hasn't done much to combat it. Immigration does play a part in terrorism in the US, but the government should be focusing on more than just that single topic in order to keep citizens safe.
I believe that the safety of the American people should be the priority of our government. However, I believe that an anti-immigration focus would not do much to prevent terrorism. This man entered through the country legally, with a visa from chain migration. I believe that re-evaluating the immigration requirements and possibly increasing the security measures could possibly help prevent attacks like these in the future.
I think that the only thing that can be done in this situation is increasing security. Since the man entered the U.S. legally, immigration cannot be the main factor since that wasn't the case. Trump's take on immigration has become his first response to every situation that involves an illegal citizen and I do not agree with it.
While immigration is an important issue, that is not the only problem in this situation. It seems absurd that this everyday citizen was able to get his hands on and create a weapon capable of injuring or killing many innocents. The lack of domestic security is often the cause of many terrorist attacks, and blocking immigration from select nations will not solve these problems.
I can see that some may agree with Trump's beliefs about the ties between immigration and terrorism. However, I personally do not believe that blocking people from entering the US will solve terrorism in our country. As other comments stated, there needs to be more domestic security so these people are not able to obtain such weapons. Trump is correct in that we need more security, however we need more security within our own country rather than merely blocking people from entering our country.
In my opinion, I think their should be increased security in popular public areas like the Times Square station. Metal detectors, cameras, and more security officers will deter potential terrorist attacks like this one. I understand that Donald Trump is trying to weed out the illegal immigrants, however we've seen that there have been some domestic attacks like Juliet mentioned in the past decade. I would have to agree with Vincent, that blocking immigration from select countries will not completely eliminate these terrorist attacks, thus I feel like increased monitoring in public areas will keep the people safe.
I believe that Trump's aggressive rhetoric is a larger threat to national security than immigrants. The United State's harsh and imposing foreign policy and immigration laws create a greater hatred of the US which leads to more terrorist attacks. Allowing in more hard working immigrants would only benefit the country and help those seeking refuge or a better life. Characterizing all immigrants as a threat is both closed minded and inaccurate, and only perpetuates a global distrust of America and its values. While this terrorist attack is frightening, it should not lead to widespread hatred.
I don’t think that curbing immigration would halt future terrorism attempts. If anything, that might be angering more people and increasing the chances of terrorist attacks. These attacks can occur at any time for any reason from anyone. This includes US citizens who simply had a lapse in judgement. To better combat terrorism, it’d be a good idea to keep more careful documentation on suspicious behaviors or mental mindsets that may stray from the normal healthy mind. This also means that the government will need to pay more attention to its citizens as well as its immigrants.
Simply blocking immigrants would not solve the problem of terrorism, nor would it be in line with American values. America is a land of immigrants, from its founding up to the present and blocking immigration would forfeit the idea of the American melting pot. Instead, terrorism could be addressed by increasing efficacy of spy agencies and police forces. To deal with domestic terrorism we must encourage acceptance of all americans instead of breeding more hate. Our government must stand against hate groups and challenge any and all claims that could encourage violence.
I agree that America is a place where all have been accepted and agreeing with Trump's opinion on immigration would be discontinuing American culture and beliefs. I'm not sure how we can counteract terrorism short term but I believe the way to prevent domestic terrorism is not only by educating adults but by educating kids. Most public schools do not have a religion class as a part of their curriculum. I think students should be exposed to other cultures and beliefs throughout the world, not just within our own country. Acceptance can only be formed through exposure, because the main reason why people are racist, sexist, or homophobic is because they are not aware of other people in the world who are not exactly like them. People are afraid of the unknown, but by educating children at a young age of the unknown, we can prevent terrorism and hateful acts done by people within our country. But, it cannot stop just with kids because children learn from their parents and their behavior, therefore, parents must also be educated so that children will learn of acceptance at their schools and within their community.
America's core values and tradition comes from immigration, and as many others agree, Trump's stand on immigration is immoral. I don't think that immigration into the United States is the cause of this terrorist attack. Because the man entered the country legally, it makes it very difficult to prevent suicide-bombers like these from coming into the country. Terrorism is definitely a problem that can't be fixed overnight, but as others have said, by educating and keeping an open mind to other peoples' beliefs the world can be one step closer to being unified.
I can understand that Trump is searching for solutions to stop terrorism, but I don't think stricter immigration laws would solve any problem. I agree with Kayla, that immigration is a core American value, and it isn't the cause of all terrorist attacks. Trump's views on immigration are immoral and he seems ignorant when he talks about stricter immigration in order to stop terrorism in the US. I agree that there is an issue with terrorist attacks in the US, but the US needs to be more accepting of different viewpoints instead of banning others to come to our country.
I do not believe that stopping immigration would solve the problem of terrorism. The US is a country that is built by immigrants and immigrants have been flowing into the US for generations so stopping immigrants from coming to this country is something that I think is a bad idea. Furthermore, I agree with previous points made in other comments that the fear of immigrants is based on a lack of knowledge about the different people that immigrate, if people were more educated about different cultures and religions, I do not think that there would be as many people that are against immigrants.
I agree with many others that Trump is wrong and stopping immigration would not solve the problem of terrorism. The bomber, Ullah, is a legal immigrant from Bangladesh, which is different from the illegal immigrants Trump has been targeting since during his campaign. As a legal immigrant myself, the idea of banning certain people from coming to this country is absolutely absurd to me. Many people have immigrated to this country without posing a threat, and in fact, they just hope for a better life here. The United States of America is a country that was created by immigrants from Europe, and turning people away because of where they're from goes against the foundation of this country. I believe a better solution would be to conduct a more thorough background check during the immigration process, and increase security in largely populated cities like NYC.
As everyone else has already said, to most straight forward answer on how to combat terrorism is to increase security. I think some other solutions that could help are to increase information gathering on suspected ISIS followers, and also maybe to make it more difficult to access ISIS information on the internet, considering a lot of terrorists are inspired by ISIS. Just banning illegal immigrants can possibly help but is not the only solution to the problem. Another problem with limiting immigration is the immorality of it, as some people mentioned above.
This act of terrorism on U.S. soil was largely on behalf of Trump announcing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This clearly created an outrage and led to public backlash. I agree with Diana with regards to Trump's approach to curbing immigration is not the solution to terrorism. There's clearly more to it. In my opinion, there needs to be more monitoring in big cities, especially New York and public areas like the Time Square Station. Any form of security as Jason suggested such as cameras, officers, will definitely minimize potential terrorist attacks. Banning illegal immigrants could help, but these domestic threats over the past decade have proven to be a bigger issue. I think better background checks during the immigration process is the right approach in order to create a sense of security. I believe this increased monitoring in public areas would keep the people safe and likely limit the amount of terrorist attacks.
The issue of what more can be done really isn't as simple as a one-line sentence in my opinion. If more could be done easily, then there would probably be alot less incidents happening. *More in the sense that tightening privacy laws, for example the NSA scandal that everyone was so enraged about claiming legitimacy under the PATRIOT Act. That was an example of "More." Nowadays that would be even worse and it doesn't look like increased surveillance is feasible cost wise or privacy wise. Both sides disagree on their "mores." I also don't think that anything could have really preempted this attack (law enforcement can't really predict things that could happen and it would be unfeasible to have law enforcement on a 24/7 standby. What's weird in this case is the pipe bomb. By definition pipe bombs are largely rudimentary and the fact that it didn't fully explode leads me to believe that it wasn't made very well (which is actually very lucky). Such a small scale attack (even the bomber survived) doesn't really reflect on immigration as a whole although most of what happens now is largely politicized anyway. Although I agree that the US should allow indiscriminate immigration, even more harsh background checks (we already have very stringent regulations) would arguably cause more scandal when the TSA is accused on intruding upon human privacy. With the amount of people that currently hate the US, maybe restrictions upon immigration would be safer in comparison to keeping the same system and coming to the same questions: what could be done to prevent more terrorism etc etc.
The issue of terrorism is one that presidents have been trying to solve for decades. I don't believe there's many options, if any to decrease terrorism in the U.S. that will not restrict our rights such as the right to bear arms which I believe is one of the biggest parts of this problem or that will invade our privacy. There could be more monitoring in big cities because they are more of targets. I believe Trump is going the only way he think will work to fix this situation, but I think that there could be a better way to go about handling it.
While I understand Trump's concern for our nation's security, curbing immigration is certainly not the solution. America should be a place of acceptance, and halting immigration directly conflicts with those values. As others have noted, the bomber was a legal US immigrant, surely adding fuel to this anti-immigration rhetoric. However, as others have mentioned, there is no obvious reason that curbing immigration would have a notable effect on terrorist attacks on US soil. After the Vegas attacks, we have reason to believe that there are many other factors contributing to the issue of terrorism besides one's immigrant status. Although the New York bomber doesn't appear to have any direct connections to ISIS, he did apparently act "in the name of ISIS," and read ISIS and AL-Queda's propaganda online. One solution* (wouldn't be a solution...it would just be one of many inevitable strategic moves to counter terrorism) would be to limit access to websites like the ones Ullah was inspired by.
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