US House passes bill to strengthen visa waiver program

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly December the 8th to tighten restrictions on travelers to the United States who have visited Iraq, Iran, Syria, or Sudan.

Some 20 million people travel to the United States each year under the program, which allows citizens from 38 countries to enter the country for 90 days or less without applying for a visa. “More than 30,000 individuals from 100 countries have gone to Syria to join jihadist groups and 5,000 of them have western passports”, he told lawmakers on the House floor. ‘Those are gaps that we need to fix’. The House bill, if passed, would bring greater scrutiny to individuals deemed at-risk for potential terrorist activity while also increase information sharing between the US and those 38 countries to limit access for some who have dual citizenship in, or have visited countries where they might have become radicalized.

Some lawmakers said they also planned to re-examine a visa that Tashfeen Malik used to come to the country. Countries in the visa waiver program would also be required to share counter terror information with the US or face expulsion from the program.

Many are in Europe, including Belgium and France, the home countries of several of the Paris attackers.

If signed into law, a visa application would be required for anyone entering the US who has traveled to Iraq or Syria in the last five years.

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.

A state department spokesperson said the agency was supportive of the legislation, that was bipartisan, proposed by the House and hopes that Congress will move swiftly to pass it.

There was an earlier proposal announced in August by Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of Homeland Security, about enhancing security under the visa waiver program.