WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, issued the following statement in response to the fatal terror attack in New York City Tuesday.

“This terrorist attack that took the lives of eight people and injured at least a dozen more was tragic. My prayers and condolences go out to the families and friends of the victims — in the U.S., Argentina and Belgium — whose lives were shattered by this attack.  I thank the first responders who subdued the suspect and provided aid to the victims.

“As the investigation continues, we must bring the full resources of the federal, state, and local governments to find out what happened and to take steps to prevent it from happening again.  We need to use our intelligence and every resource we have to keep the American people safe.

“It’s important at moments like this that we come together as a nation and not try to politicize this attack. We need to learn from it. The President should work with Congress to enhance our counterterrorism programs in the US that assist our state and local law enforcement officers, and should reverse his efforts to cut these programs in the FY ’18 budget. He also should engage Congress in finding solutions to fix our broken immigration system, just as the United States Senate did four years ago when we passed bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform.”

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