Angus King: Visa waivers bigger danger than refugees

The U.S. Travel Association, a lobbying group representing tourism-related businesses, is pushing back, reminding lawmakers that the 20 million people who come to America each year on Visa Waiver tend to do things like spend money ( billion in 2013, for example).

Grella, of the U.S. Travel Association, urged caution in changing the visa-waiver program. She said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., has agreed to co-sponsor the legislation, which she plans to introduce after Thanksgiving. Such travelers would have to secure a visa.

“Sen. Paul is suggesting a discredited 1930s approach – sweeping isolationism – to a decidedly 21st century problem”, Dow continued.

“My concern is that French citizens who have great hostility for civilization your government and peace have the same great hostility for us (and) that they could get on a plane and come here” Paul told AFP. “If we do, shame on us, because then we’re giving the enemy precisely what they want – terror, resignation, our prosperity and our very way of life”.

“We understand the political urge to act after the fact to prove that one is ‘on it, ‘ but we urge Congress to carefully consider how to tweak the (visa waiver program) to respond to the threat, rather than engaging in security theater”, Grella said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are beginning to realize that the United States’ refugee program is something that needs examining, but at the same time, the visa waiver program “probably poses a much great risk to us”, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said Thursday. Terrorists responsible for the recent attack in Paris had residency or citizenship in such visa-free countries as Belgium and France.

Nowicki is The Republic’s national political reporter.

There is no indication any of the attackers had tried to travel to the United States. Many experts knowledgeable of the program acknowledge that it is an important part of the US economy and also benefits Americans who don’t need visas to travel to the countries in the program.

But USA politicians warn the visa exemption flaws may be far more serious. “Were I in Europe already, and I wanted to go to the United States, and were I not on a watch list or a no-fly list and I wanted to get there, the likelihood is I would use the visa waiver program before I would try to pawn myself off as a refugee”, said Sen.

The fight over Syrian refugees has become a lightning rod in the 2016 race, with Republican presidential candidates lining up in favor of restricting Syrian refugees’ access to the USA – and President Obama sharply criticizing their calls as out of step with the nation’s character. Democrats did not reference that campaign during a press conference Thursday, presenting the move instead as a no-brainer counter-terrorism measure with language that, in a different form, once had the backing of former president George W. Bush’s Justice Department, they said. “And it’s contrary to who we are”.

“We don’t even know who they are”, he continued. “They could be ISIS, they could be anybody”.

The House bill requires that the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence personally sign off on every Iraqi or Syrian refugee application, affirming that the refugee is not a threat to the U.S. It also requires the FBI to conduct a background investigation of each refugee applicant, which is separate from Homeland Security’s screening.