Marino Votes to Fortify Visa Waiver Program

The visa-waiver program of the US, which is participated by 38 countries including Belgium and France, allows the citizens of these countries to enter the USA visa free for a maximum stay of 90 days.

The majority of the attackers in Paris were either Belgian, or Frenchman.

“As we make it harder for certain people to take advantage of the program, there are people who are going to be deterred from travelling here, and not necessarily terrorists, but travellers”, he says.

In light of recent terror attacks in Paris, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would tighten travel restrictions for those entering the country.

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday with overwhelming support that would require all foreigners who have visited Iraq, Syria or Iran, or who hold dual citizenship from those countries, to obtain a visa before traveling to the United States. They are screened through an online Homeland Security system before arrival; the new bill would require that the current visa-waiver participant countries provide “e-passports” with biometric information, like fingerprints, for further security. The Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on this bill.

Some 60 percent of all worldwide travellers who visited the USA past year entered via the visa waiver program.

The measure would require countries participating in the visa waiver program to check travelers against Interpol databases to determine whether they are wanted by law-enforcement agencies based on ties to terrorism or criminal activity. A different, Senate version of the bill is also in the works and is stricter than the House’s bill as it would prevent anyone who has traveled to Iraq or Syria from participating in the program for the next five years.

Besides European countries, nations such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Brunei and Chile are also part of that program. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican in the chamber, said Monday he expected some changes to the visa waiver program would be included in government-spending legislation being negotiated by lawmakers. The Secretary of Homeland Security would be able to designate additional countries of concern should threats arise and suspend a country from VWP if information-sharing requirements are not sufficiently met.

Congress should tread carefully when changing the visa waiver program because of “the tourism dollars that ride on that”, he said in an interview.