BETTER SECURITY NEEDED IN VISA PROCESS: MICHAEL CUTLER

Posted By on January 14th, 2010

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5257/pub_detail.asp
January 14, 2010

Exclusive: Better Security Needed in Visa Process

Michael Cutler

This recent Washington Times article focuses on the efforts of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to highlight the need for better security in the visa issuance process. I’ve raised this critical issue on a number of occasions, and I’m pleased that Sen. Grassley has once again demonstrated leadership in this vital area.
 
To provide you with a bit of background, I joined Sen. Grassley and other witnesses at a field hearing that was conducted by the House Judiciary Committee in Dubuque, Iowa on September 1, 2006 on the topic, “Is the Reid-Kennedy Bill a Repeat of the Failed Amnesty of 1986?“
 
What was remarkable about Sen. Grassley’s testimony was not only that he had been a proponent of the disastrous Immigration Amnesty of 1986 (Immigration Reform and Control Act or IRCA), but was willing to publicly state that the amnesty of 1986 was a disaster and that he opposed the proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act that the Senate, at the time, was attempting to ram through the legislative process. How often have you seen a leader publicly admit to having made a mistake? This was certainly a demonstration of true leadership and principle – would that more of our leaders demonstrate such integrity.
 
It was also Sen. Grassley who, in 2006, joined Sen. Sue Collins (R-ME) to request that the GAO (General Accountability Office), the investigative arm of the Congress, conduct an investigation into the practices at USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) in light of allegations they had apparently received from USCIS employees that the adjudicators were not being provided with the relating immigration alien files of aliens who applied for all sorts of immigration benefits, including aliens who applied for resident alien (lawful immigrant) status and even United States citizenship.
 
The GAO conducted that investigation and concluded that USCIS had claimed to have “lost” some 111,000 immigration files, including the files relating to 30,000 aliens who applied to acquire United States citizenship via the naturalization process.
 
Sen. Grassley is among those politicians who understand that immigration is far more than the issue of the lack of border security to be found along the Mexican border.
 
Please do not misunderstand: obviously our failure to secure that dangerous and increasingly violent border is a national security disaster, but it is only one of many disasters to be found throughout the entire immigration system. A chain is as strong as its weakest link.” Where immigration is concerned, it is clear that all that we have are extremely weak and – all but nonexistent – links.
 
When reading the Washington Times article linked above, please pay attention to the ridiculous arguments and finger-pointing that constitutes nothing more than the adult version of the childhood “blame game” we played when we went to school. It would appear that we have a bunch of incompetent fools in charge of protecting our nation and our citizens.
 
When the news stories began to break about the unsuccessful attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate a bomb onboard the Delta Airlines flight on Christmas Day, questions had been asked about why this Nigerian citizen had not been placed on the “No Fly” list even though his father, a respected banker, warned our government’s officials that he believed that his son had become radicalized and had traveled to Yemen. Others questioned why Abdulmutallab’s visa had not been canceled.
 
My first thought was, “Why was he issued a visa in the first place?” Then he would never have been allowed on the airplane in the first place, regardless of whether or not his name was on the “No Fly” list.
 
Sen. Grassley describes the visa process:
 
Congress directed DHS when it was established in 2002 to create the units in question to help State Department consular officers abroad in screening visa applicants. Mr. Grassley called them vital for “shoring up one of America’s first lines of defense against foreign terrorist attacks.”
 
As you read through the approximately 40 questions on the State Department website where foreigners can apply for a tourist visa, you can see that it can help our officials to screen aliens before they set foot on a U.S. bound airliner. Yet there are many weaknesses in the visa process, including:
 
1. How many translators are present where DHS personnel are assigned to visa issuing posts at U.S. embassies and consulates? And how many of those translators are U.S. citizens and employees of the U.S. government and how many are foreign nationals – so-called “locals” – whose integrity may not be easy to assess or guarantee? There have been instances in a number of foreign countries where these local employees acted as spies or failed to properly translate what was being said – either because they had taken bribes or because they were incompetent. When these locals were discovered to have taken bribes to assist criminals and others who would have failed to qualify for visas, often the State Department simply fired them because it would have been extremely difficult to have brought criminal charges against them in their native countries.
 
2. Are consular officials being given and adequate amount of time to truly question foreign nationals who apply for visas, or are they still expected to process a visa application in a couple of minutes?
 
3. Are consular officials trained to review the passport of each visa applicant to check for admission stamps relating to “Special Interest” countries? That is to say, countries associated with terrorism such as Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the Sudan and others? Do they even have enough time to do this basic review of travel documents?
 
4. Are consular officials required to check all of the relevant databases to search for evidence that the applicant for a visa may be on a terror watch list?
 
5. How are slight variations in names dealt with when these names do appear on watch lists? Remember, in many foreign countries, the languages that are used have different alphabets and so often names can be transcribed from that foreign language to English in many different ways.
 
6. How often are the databases used by consular officials updated?
 
7. Are consular officials trained to give visa applicants the “benefit of the doubt” or are they taught to err on the side of caution? 
 
8. Here is the real key question: how are consular officials evaluated? Are there any rewards or incentives for denying a visa application especially when the reason for the denial relates to national security, or are these State Department employees evaluated by the quantity of the visas that they approve and the speed with which they do it?
 
Going back to the instant matter of Mr. Abdulmutallab, it is also worth considering that he had applied for a visa to return to Great Britain, the country where he obtained his degrees in finance and engineering, but was denied that visa. Clearly, the British authorities had concerns about him. Was any derogatory information that was developed by British authorities shared with their American counterparts? 
 
Newspaper accounts have reported that Abdulmutallab was the president of the Islamic Society at UCL (University College London) from 2006 until 2007. This was at least a year before he applied for the visa for the United States that enabled him to seek to enter the United States when he boarded the Christmas flight to Detroit two weeks ago.
 
What has not been discussed, but should be considered, was whether or not that organization that he headed had a reputation for espousing radical views and advocating violence.
 
Let us also remember that Great Britain is one of the 35 countries who participate in the Visa Waiver program. The problem is not that the Brits don’t generally cooperate with us, but that Great Britain has been attacked by terrorists and it must be presumed that there are terrorists who may well use Great Britain as a staging area for attacks elsewhere in the world including, potentially the United States. Any alien in England who acquires British citizenship would not need a visa to come to the United States.
 
We need to address our nation’s many immigration and border failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.
 
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who addresses the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.

 

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