Exclusive–Syrian Refugee Accused of Plotting to Bomb Pittsburgh Church Sought Green Card

A Syrian refugee accused of plotting to bomb a Christian church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was in the process of attempting to obtain a green card to permanently remain in the United States, Breitbart News has exclusively learned.

As Breitbart News reported, Syrian refugee Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, born June 5, 1998 in Daraa, Syria, was arrested this week and charged with attempting to bomb the Legacy International Worship Center — a Christian church — in Pittsburgh.

At the time of his arrest, Alowemer was in the process of trying to obtain a green card, which would have allowed him to permanently remain in the U.S. and eventually be eligible for American citizenship, a federal law enforcement official confirmed to Breitbart News.

Alowemer first entered the U.S. through the New York port of entry on August 1, 2016 as a refugee from Syria, being granted RE3 status, which indicates he was the child of a refugee.

Sometime after entering the U.S., Alowemer sought to adjust his status from refugee to permanent legal resident, otherwise known as a green card, according to the federal official. The Syrian refugee had a pending green card application filed when he was arrested for allegedly plotting the Pittsburgh bomb plot.

Alowemer’s 2016 entry to the U.S. was during President Obama’s era of mass migration via the refugee resettlement program — particularly from nations like Syria, Sudan, Iraq, and Iran.

Between 2009 and the end of Obama’s second term, more than 19,100 Syrian refugees were admitted to the U.S. — more than 18,500 of which are Sunni Muslims.

During the time that Alowemer entered the U.S. from Syria, then-candidate Donald Trump was ringing the alarm about the dangers of mass immigration and refugee resettlement from regions like Syria.

In March 2016, months before Alowemer entered the country, Trump tweeted: “Europe and the U.S. must immediately stop taking in people from Syria. This will be the destruction of civilization as we know it! So sad!”

Europe and the U.S. must immediately stop taking in people from Syria. This will be the destruction of civilization as we know it! So sad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016

After becoming president, Trump quickly reversed Obama’s mass migration policy from Syrian by implementing a travel ban and near immigration moratorium from eight terrorist-sanctioned foreign countries including Syria.

Since Trump’s inauguration, roughly 2,100 Syrian refugees have been admitted for entry into the U.S. In 2018, only about 41 Syrian refugees were given admittance to the country and this year, thus far, less than 400 have been admitted in total.

Due to Trump’s reforms to the refugee resettlement program, where he has set a cap of no more than 30,000 admissions a year, the U.S. is no longer the top spot for the world’s refugees, as Breitbart News reported. The nations of the European Union and Canada now outpace the U.S. as the top locations for foreign refugees to gain admittance.

Every year, the U.S. admits more than 1.2 million legal immigrants from a variety of countries — causing the foreign-born population to surge to an unprecedented 45.6 million. The overwhelming majority arrive through the process known as “chain migration,” wherby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S. Chain migration, since 2005, has brought nearly 120,000 foreign nationals from the terrorist-sponsored countries of Iran, Syria, and Sudan to the U.S.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.