US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would "certainly consider" sending New York terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov to America's military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"Send him to Gitmo, I would certainly consider that," Trump told reporters at the beginning of a cabinet meeting, using the nickname for the jail site.
Authorities say Saipov, an Uzbek immigrant who moved to America in 2010 and is not a US citizen, used a rented pickup truck to mow down pedestrians and cyclists along a mile-long stretch of a bike path on Lower's Manhattan's West Side on Tuesday.
Guantanamo gained global notoriety when Islamist fighters who were captured in Afghanistan were put there in the months following the US-led invasion.
The prison only houses non-US citizens, with American accused jihadists processed in federal court.
The population has shrunk from a high of more than 750 down to 41 after years of attempts by Barack Obama's administration to shutter it amid claims of abuse and a lack of due process.
In the face of Republican opposition, Obama never succeeded and Trump has taken a different track, saying as a candidate that he wants to load up Guantanamo with "some bad dudes."
Green card lottery program to be "terminated"
President Trump also said that he would end the popular US green card lottery program, that he says the Uzbek man entered the country on.
"I am starting the process of terminating the diversity lottery program," Trump told reporters.
"We have to do what's right to protect our citizens," he told reporters.
"We will get rid of this lottery program as soon as possible."
The 1990 program awards US permanent resident visas to around 50,000 applicants from around the world each year, opening the door as well for members of their broader families to follow them, so-called chain migration.
According to Trump, Sayfullo Saipov, who plowed a rented truck into cyclists and pedestrians on a New York City bike path Tuesday, came to the country via the program.
Saipov was arrested after being shot by police and officials said he planned to undertake his attack in the name of Islamic State for weeks, following online instructions from the jihadist group.
Trump's threat would further close the doors to hopeful US immigrants, after slashing the country's annual refugee intake by more than 50 percent, tightening visa issuance around the world and attempting to ban travelers from 11 countries, most of them with Muslim-majority populations. Uzbekistan is not among the 11.
The program Trump threatened Wednesday aims to diversify the origins of people granted permanent residence -- so-called green cards -- in the United States.
In 2015 the green card lottery, applications were received for more than 14 million people, and 49,377 won green cards. That included 2,524 Uzbeks.
Trump said he wants to move US immigration to a "merit-based system" and not allow immigrants to bring their extended families.
"We want to get rid of chain migration," he said.
