Visa WaiverGOP lawmakers draft bill to bolster Visa Waiver security

Published 7 December 2015

About twenty million people use the Visa Waiver program to come to the United States every year. A bill being considered in the House would block anyone who has traveled to Syria, Iraq or a few other nations in the past five years from participating in the Visa Waiver program. It would also require the United States to collect more information about those who avail themselves of the program, codifying a policy already in place.

New federal plan to bolster Visa Waiver program // Source: whitehouse.gov

Representative Candice Miller (R-Michigan), chairwoman of the House Administration Committee, says the United States should stop giving foreign travelers “special access” to the United States without bolstering security screening. There are “major weaknesses” in the U.S. visa waiver program, Miller said. The program allows citizens of thirty-eight countries to enter the United States for up to ninety days without a visa. The House plans to vote this week on tightening the program’s security.

We simply can’t give people from other countries special access to our soil if we don’t have all of the information that we need to make sure that they’re not a threat,” Miller said Saturday in the Republicans’ weekly address.

Miller added that the United States has to take every step to defend itself against the Islamic State.

“Clearly, we have a major weakness in our visa-waiver program — a glaring hole that we have to close,” Miller said. “The members of ISIS will use every means within their power to attack our country. And that’s why we have to use every mean within our power to defend it.”

The Hill reports that the bill being considered in the House would block anyone who has traveled to Syria, Iraq or a few other nations in the past five years from participating in the Visa Waiver program. It would also require the United States to collect more information about those who avail themselves of the program, codifying a policy already in place.

The proposed legislation would also encourage DHS to remove a country from the program if that country does not share more information with the United States about where its citizens are traveling.

About twenty million people use the Visa Waiver program to come to the United States every year. The Obama administration has already taken steps to increase the program’s security.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) said he expects bipartisan passage of the bill this week.

The Hillnotes that the proposed legislation does not go as far as some ideas proposed by GOP lawmakers. The Senate, for example, rejected an amendment, sponsored by Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky),which would have required a 30-day wait for people who want to use the program and would have paused U.S.-issued visas for people from about thirty countries.

As Americans, we live in a free and open society, and terrorists are looking for any and every opportunity to exploit those freedoms and use them against us, so we need to think clearly,” Miller said.