President Donald Trump on Tuesday night tweeted that he has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to step up his administration's "Extreme Vetting Program" in the wake of Tuesday's terror attack by an immigrant from Uzbekistan.
Trump has come under fire from the critics over his plan to restrict immigration from countries linked to Islamic terrorism.
The suspect in Tuesday's deadly attack, 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, who came to the United States in 2010, shouted "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "Allah is the greatest!" — and had a letter saying he was killing on behald if the Islamic State (ISIS), according to authorites.
Trump came under fire in December 2015 when he said at a campaign rally he was "calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."
That statement was cited as the reason a federal court struck down his temporary ban on immigration from people from seven predominantly Muslim countries early in his presidency.
The administration is now using the "extreme vetting" model to keep out radical Islamists, which the president vowed to push even harder following Tuesday's attack that left eight people dead.
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