At least two accused terrorists – shoe bomber Richard Reid and 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui – entered the US through the Visa Waiver Program.
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House lawmakers passed legislation Tuesday tightening controls on visa-free travel and requiring visas for anyone who has been in Iraq or Syria in the previous five years. It also requires countries to report lost and stolen passport information to centralized INTERPOL databases with 24 hours of reported loss or theft.
It comes after the Obama administration was angered when the House approved legislation last month cracking down on the Syrian refugee programme in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks.
“We simply can not give people from other countries special access to our country if we don’t have all the information we need to ensure they are not a threat to our national security”, said bill sponsor Candice Miller, a Michigan Republican.
The US Travel Association backed the House bill, rather than a Senate proposal from Democrat Dianne Feinstein and Republican Jeff Flake that would also require the collection of biometric data.
The visa waiver programme is “good for America’s economy and good for our leadership overseas”, Royce said. “We must strengthen it by shutting it to those who would do us harm”.
Separately some lawmakers are also talking about looking at the fiancé visa program utilized by the shooters in San Bernardino, California.
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said Wednesday he would support ending a loophole that allows foreigners who legally enter the United States without a visa to buy firearms.
Congress has been focused on visa waivers since the Paris atrocities because some of the militants behind the attacks were Europeans radicalized after visiting Syria.
The bill encourages countries that fall under the VWP program to provide information regarding suspected terrorists and criminals. The Visa Waiver Program Improvement Act of 2015 adds additional critical layers of protection to the program to help prevent these fighters from entering the United States.
If it became law, it would mean that any Irish travellers who had visited Iraq, Syria, Iran or Sudan, excpt on official government-related business, since 1 March 2011 would no longer be eligible to avail of the waiver programme and would have to attend for an interview.
It is one of the smallest visa categories managed by the US accounting for 0.3 percent of the almost 10 million visas issued in fiscal year 2014 and was created to try to root out marriage fraud.
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She said that if the House had voted on the measure in January as originally planned, the country would have been ahead of the game in protecting its citizens.
