WASHINGTON — The White House reacted to Monday's attempted terrorist attack in New York City by calling for tighter restrictions on immigration.
"We must protect our borders, we must ensure that individuals entering our country are not coming to do harm to people, and we must move to a merit-based immigration system," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
Trump himself, meanwhile, did not comment on the attack when asked about it following a White House event on space exploration.
Trump's immigration proposals have drawn political and legal challenges from critics who say he is targeting all Muslims and Hispanics.
The administration is putting in place a plan to ban travel from the United States from six predominately Muslim countries. Trump also faces opposition to his plan for an anti-migration wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In New York on Monday, police arrested a 27-year-old man after saying he set off a pipe-bomb in a commuter tunnel near Times Square,
The suspect, identified as Akayed Ullah, is an immigrant from Bangladesh who lived in Brooklyn.
