President Joe Biden’s administration is openly disregarding recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission that tout the importance of properly vetting all immigrants to the United States, in person, before granting their entry with a visa, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) says.
Last month, Biden’s State Department and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that foreign nationals applying for H-1B, L-1, and O-1 visas will not be required to sit through an in-person interview at an overseas U.S. consulate to secure their visa.
The decision to further ease vetting requirements for foreign nationals arriving in the U.S. comes as foreign nationals seeking temporary H-2B work visas and F-1 student visas have been exempt from having to undergo in-person interviews with U.S. consulate officials.
Likewise, the Biden administration has brought more than 75,000 Afghans to the U.S. for resettlement since mid-August. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has admitted in congressional testimony that “not all” Afghans are being vetted in person.
In a letter to Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Hawley requests that the administration “immediately rescind these misguided policies and ensure that everyone who enters this country has been adequately vetted.”
“These policies are dangerous and transparent attempts to normalize the Biden Administration’s historic failures during the evacuation from Afghanistan. They should be rescinded immediately,” Hawley writes, noting that the 9/11 Commission urged in-person vetting as a vital tool to stopping would-be terrorists from entering the U.S.
“Our nation’s immigration policies have generally required that immigrants undergo an in-person interview so that government officials can review immigrants’ documents and evaluate the truthfulness of their claims,” Hawley writes:
Indeed, the 9/11 Commission’s report emphasized that several would-be terrorists were thwarted by the in-person interview process. For example, “One potential hijacker was turned back by an immigration inspector as he tried to enter the United States. The inspector relied on intuitive experience to ask questions more than he relied on any objective factor that could be detected by ‘scores’ or a machine. Good people who have worked in such jobs for a long time understand this phenomenon well.” Examples like this illustrate the critical role that in-person interviews play in our immigration programs. [Emphasis added]
…
The first and highest priority of our immigration system is homeland security. It is paramount that we ensure that everyone who enters our country does not pose a threat to public safety. But it appears that the Biden Administration is now doubling down on its failed attempt to adequately vet those evacuated from Afghanistan. These new policies are a transparent ploy to normalize that failed vetting process. [Emphasis added]
While Hawley warns of the policy’s potential for danger, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has praised the lax vetting procedures as necessary for businesses to readily import foreign workers for blue-collar and white-collar American jobs.
“The critical factor going forward will be the extent to which consulates exercise these newly-granted authorities,” the Chamber’s Jon Baselice told the Wall Street Journal. “The more the State Department uses them, the more beneficial they will be to American companies.”
Every year, about 1.2 million foreign nationals are rewarded with green cards to permanently reside in the U.S. In addition, about 1.5 million foreign nationals are given temporary work visas to take jobs in the American economy that would otherwise go to Americans.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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