US House votes to restrict visa-free travel after Paris attacks

The House voted 407 to 19 in support of the proposed change to visa-free travel.

The House voted overwhelming on Tuesday to tighten travel into the US under the so-called “visa waiver” program, which requires visas from anyone who has traveled to Iraq, Syria, Iran and the Sudan in the last five years.

If a person was considered at risk, they would have to be interviewed at a overseas consulate first, like those traveling from countries outside the visa-waiver program.

“We simply can not give people from other countries special access to our country if we don’t have all of the information that we absolutely need to ensure that they are not a threat to national security”, said Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), the bill’s author.

The Senate has not scheduled a vote on either measure.

The proposal was drafted by a task force of Republican committee chairmen, who have been working on a roster of proposals to respond to the Paris terror attacks by stepping up security measures at home and overseas.

“Keeping the American people safe remains the House’s top priority”, he said in a statement.

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. It would increase the fee charged to applicants using the Department of Homeland Security’s electronic authorization system.

“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.

The White House announced its support of the bill following the coordinated terror attacks which took place in various locations across Paris on November 13, after it was found that attackers had been radicalised whilst in Syria.

The U.S. admits about 20 million people a year under the program, which allows them to stay for up to 90 days.

The new laws mandate all visa waiver countries to check travellers against Interpol databases and issue fraud-resistant “e-passports” carrying biometric information and sharing of data on lost and stolen passports.

Senators Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, and Feinstein have introduced separate legislation in the Senate. Now there are 38 countries that take part in the waiver program.

Countries in the visa waiver program would be required to share counterterrorism information with the United States.

“This bill will do some good, but it’s mostly evadable”, said Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California.