State Department official: US revokes visas based on threats

Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are set to press administration officials Thursday morning on what safeguards are in place to ensure that would-be extremists are not exploiting a variety of legal paths to travel to the United States.

USA officials have acknowledged that no one was routinely checking visa applicants’ social media postings at the time when an application came in from Tashfeen Malik, one of the two shooters in the San Bernardino killings.

USA lawmakers hammered federal immigration officials on Thursday for not closely reviewing social media posts in vetting visa applicants, while the officials said they are now doing this but finding the results so far to be inconclusive.

In Malik’s case, though, since earlier background checks did not raise suspicions, no SAO investigation was requested before she was granted a visa to enter the United States as Farook’s fiancée, the USA official said.

“There is less there that is actually of screening value than you would expect; at least in small early samples, some things seem more ambiguous than clear”, Rodriguez told lawmakers Thursday.

In a December 16 article for The Hill, 13 year Department of Homeland Security veteran Philip Haney offered a scathing critique of the Obama administration for its alleged failure to investigate the background of Sayed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the couple responsible for December 2’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. “Under my leadership as secretary, we in fact began to consult social media in connection with conferring various immigration benefits and we will be doing more of this”, he added.

The director’s remarks indicate that US authorities who were considering Malik’s application would not have discovered evidence of suspected radicalization even if they had reviewed her social media history.

Legislation that would require the development of a social media strategy to disrupt terrorist groups from recruiting and communicating was supported on Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL).

The Pakistani woman who carried out the attack with her husband came to the USA on a fiancé visa.

One source with knowledge of DHS screening said that, for years, employees were prevented from even accessing social media sites because of government firewalls created to prevent staff from engaging in personal social networking on the job. Since 2001, the USA has revoked more than 120,000 visas, Bond said.

Alan Bersin, assistant secretary for global affairs at Department of Homeland Security, insisted the system worked the way it is supposed to operated.

The department was criticized specifically for not monitoring some social media accounts properly before granting visas.

Gowdy said the responses show the vetting process is inadequate and that the government needs to become better at getting information when it receives visa applications.

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