While no immigration data on the Brothers Tsarnaev have been confirmed, it may well be that the bombing in Boston will complicate matters for the Senate’s Gang of Eight that is promoting comprehensive immigration reform (CIR).
At this writing there are numerous press accounts that the two men, Dzhokhar A Tsarsnaev, 19, now apparently at large, and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, killed by police bullets, were suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing.
Both were said to be Chechens, both were noted as Muslims, and both fled when Russian authorities took control of Chechnya, a Muslim region in that nation. They, apparently, spent some time in Kyrgyzstan (a majority-Muslim former USSR Republic) and before coming to the US, in some reports as refugees. There were some indications that they had green cards, which would have been a logical outcome of their going through either asylum or refugee status.
Whatever the final word on their immigration status, and their status as bombing suspects – we should remember that these men have not been convicted, nor even indicted – their alleged activities have delayed the CIR express train already, with the Gang of Eight postponing their presentation of their long bill because of the early reports of the explosions. And Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is not testifying at this morning's Senate hearing because of the manhunt in Boston.
Although neither asylees nor refugees are the main subjects of CIR, any linkage of aliens to terrorist acts is likely to impact the dialogue about immigration reform, if only tangentially.
Let's wait for more developments.
