The Visa Waiver Program, which was created in 1986, allows citizens from 38 participating countries to more easily travel to the USA for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa.
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Until Tuesday’s strong bipartisan vote, the two parties have struggled to come together on any measures to improve security after the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. Democrats were unable to get support for keeping persons on terror no-fly lists from legally buying guns or explosives.
While an earlier vote to suspend Syrian and Iraqi refugee admissions “showed the country and this body at its worst”, said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, “Today’s bill makes sensible improvements to the security of the visa waiver program”.
Close to 20 million visitors are believed to enter the USA annually under this Visa Waiver Program. One of the new security measures includes modifying the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) application to capture information from VWP travelers about any past travel to countries that constitute a “terrorist safe haven”. ‘Those are gaps that we need to fix’.
“You have more than 5,000 individuals that have Western passports in this program that have gone to Iraq or Syria in the last five years”, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy stated. For a traveler to be eligible to this program, they must also have a valid ESTA approval prior to traveling to the U.S. H.R. 158 requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to terminate a country from the Visa Waiver Program if the country does not share counterterrorism data-and doesn’t allow the country back until it complies with the program requirements.
The House bill received backing from the White House but Republicans say that the U.S. Congress will also be looking into the K-1 fiancée visa, which was used by Tashfeen Malik to enter the country. The House of Representatives voted to make changes to a United States visa program and the Senate is headed that way.
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“The 9/11 Commission said that ‘for terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons.’ I couldn’t agree more”, said Subcommittee Chairman Miller. This new bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security to terminate any country’s participation if it doesn’t communicate with the US. 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.
