Referencing one of the San Bernardino terrorists who allegedly had come to the US on the Visa Waiver Program, Obama called for Congress to look carefully at the rules of the program.
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The White House later issued a correction of the remark in a transcript of Obama’s speech, striking the word waiver from his statement.
The Visa waiver program may see changes and a stricter scrutiny have been ordered by The U.S. government and now the travelers will be screened more closely.
Dow said the Visa Waiver Program “is properly being looked at for enhancement-an effort that the American travel community strongly supports”.
The House of Representatives will vote this week on a bill to tighten the program.
In his primetime remarks to address the terrorist threat, Obama said Malik used the Visa Waiver Program – a program which allows the nationals of participating countries to get into the US without a visa.
Neither Pakistan nor Saudi Arabia are Visa Waiver Program countries. The attack killed 14 and left 21 injured Wednesday.
Critics say America’s overseas facilities are not staffed up to handle the expected onslaught of visitors who would need such prescreening. This action was done at the same time as the massacre took place. It allows people from one of 38 different countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business.
Proposed legislation would ban visa-free entry of citizens from member countries if they report on a travel application that they have visited any of the four targeted countries since 2011.
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Lawmakers have questioned the visa waiver program often in recent years, citing terrorism fears that were attributed to the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
