US House passes bill to tighten visa waiver program

The measure would require visitors from the 38 “visa waiver” countries to obtain a visa to travel to the United States if they have been to Syria, Iraq, Iran or Sudan in the past five years.

It was not clear when the full Senate would vote on the Feinstein-Flake bill.

Following news that the female suspect who participated in the San Bernardino shootings came to the United States on a fiancé visa, some lawmakers have been contemplating changes to that program. The scheme began in 1986 to boost tourism and over 20 million people visit the USA under the program.

“Additionally, this legislation enhances screening of travelers and requires participating countries to share counterterrorism information with the US or lose eligibility for participation in the program”.

The bill would also amend the “Immigration and Nationality Act” to include terrorism risk as a factor under the Electronic System for Travel Authorization that the Secretary of Homeland Security shall consider when determining whether a foreign national is eligible to travel to the U.S.

“The 9/11 Commission said that ‘for terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons.’ I couldn’t agree more”, said Subcommittee Chairman Miller.

The threat of terrorism may tighten up who gets into the US.

Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, hosted a roundtable with members of the Homeland Security Committee, to, as he says, plug the loopholes.

Congress has been focused on visa waivers since Paris because some of the militants behind the attacks were Europeans radicalized after visiting Syria. The new restrictions would be “mostly evadable”, he said, because most foreign fighters enter Syria through Turkey, where their passports are stamped.

“If they visited in the last five years, then they would have to go through the normal visa screening process, instead of the visa waiver process”, explains Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of the Migration Policy Institute’s US Immigration Policy Program.

He said he supports some parts of this bill, including requiring all travelers to be checked against INTERPOL databases, using fraud-resistant e-passports with biometric information to protect against false identities, and strengthening background check procedures and information-sharing.

The legislation may end up attached to a sweeping year-end spending bill now being finalized on Capitol Hill.

“House Democrats and House Republicans have no greater priority than keeping Americans safe”, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking House Democrat, said while urging support for the measure.

The proposal also contains provisions to make it easier for the USA to remove countries from the visa waiver program if they do not cooperate with law enforcement and the intelligence community.