WASHINGTON—As the pieces of the Boston Marathon attacks started coming together and a clearer picture began to emerge of the two men suspected of carrying out the bombings on April 15, the question turned from “Why did this happen?” to “How did this happen?”
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, are ethnic Chechen Muslims who came to the U.S. a decade ago, according to reports. That two immigrants are allegedly responsible for the attacks that killed three and injured hundreds more has forced new light on the immigration reform debate and raised doubts about whether the Senate’s latest immigration bill strengthens national security or weakens it.
“It’s not surprising that we’re seeing people talk about this, especially since the suspects are immigrants themselves,” said Philip Wolgin, senior policy analyst for immigration at the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.
Though Wolgin said immigration is “disconnected from what happened in Boston,” he noted that “there is going to be added scrutiny on national security” because of the attacks.
In the days following the bombings, a number of Congressmembers pointed to the events as a reason to slow down the immigration reform bill’s progress through Senate.
The attacks “are reminders that our immigration system is directly related to our sovereignty and national security matters,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for the bill last month.
“I have not advocated that we quit talking about immigration reform,” he said. “Rather, I am advocating that we carefully review the immigration laws and the administrative policies in place to ensure that we are addressing critical national security issues.”
Grassley and Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., have been two of the most vocal opponents of the reform bill, saying it doesn’t do enough to track those coming into the country or those who are already here. Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, compared the Tsarnaev brothers to the 9/11 hijackers, who he said “abused our immigration system” by overstaying their visas.
Tamerlan, killed in a police shootout four days after the bombing, was already on an F.B.I. watch list and had caught the attention of Homeland Security when he took a trip to Russia in 2012, though no action was taken. Dzhokhar is currently in police custody and facing charges of use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Jill Wilson, senior research analyst at the Brookings Institution, said current immigration laws aren’t to blame for the attacks.
“The immigration admission process couldn’t have predicted or prevented” the events, she said.
The new Senate bill, released in mid-April after months of negotiations, outlines a number of measures to tighten borders, track entry and exit visas, and establish a pathway to citizenship—beginning with a series of criminal background checks— for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
“It seems like that would be a boost to national security,” Wilson said.
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at a recent hearing that he is “troubled” by what he called attempts to exploit the Boston bombings to argue against immigration reform.
He and other prominent senators, including Republican Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, have pointed to the attacks as a reason to speed up the bill’s progress through the Senate. They say it has only highlighted the necessity of finding out exactly who is in our borders.
Despite talk of delays, the bill continues to progress through Senate; markup began May 9, with more than 301 amendments up for discussion. A House immigration bill is in negotiations but has yet to be unveiled.
Wilson said the Boston attacks won’t have much impact Congressional or public views on immigration, but might make the case for reform “a little bit stronger.” She said that now, more than ever, the U.S. will realize the need for an overhaul of the immigration system.
“If anything, this bombing should be a wakeup call,” she said.
