US lawmakers vote to restrict visa-free entries
"A radical with a French passport or a Belgian passport can get on a plane in Brussels or Paris today and come to America no questions asked, be here for 90 days, without us knowing any better,"Paul Ryan said Monday on a local radio program. | Getty
By Lauren French
An overwhelming majority of House lawmakers voted Tuesday to tighten restrictions on individuals entering the U.S without visas from ally nations — the chamber's strongest border control move yet after Islamic terrorists killed 130 people in Paris.
Passing the measure may give Republican leaders more space to maneuver on a must-pass government spending bill. Many conservatives want to add provisions to the omnibus that would bar Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the U.S. until tighter vetting restrictions are in place.
But GOP leaders hope that Tuesday's stand-alone visa measure will satiate the Republican appetite for action on the Syrian issue. The bill would stop individuals from traveling to the U.S. from certain countries without a visa if they've previously traveled to countries like Iraq or Syria that are known terrorism hotbeds.
The measure passed 407 to 19, with the vast majority of House Democrats crossing the aisle to support the Republican-authored bill.
As it stands now, individuals from 38 friendly countries, like the United Kingdom and France, don't need a visa to enter the U.S. under a system known as the visa-waiver program. The program allows nearly 20 million individuals to enter the country annually.
But after the shootings in Paris, for which the Islamic State took credit, lawmakers have criticized the program's relatively lax entry requirements. Terrorists involved with the shootings allegedly boasted about the ease with which they were able to travel abroad because of a program similar to the U.S. visa-waiver system.
"A radical with a French passport or a Belgian passport can get on a plane in Brussels or Paris today and come to America no questions asked, be here for 90 days, without us knowing any better," Speaker Paul Ryan said Monday on a local radio program.
Democrats have been critical of the Republican response to the Paris massacre. Only 47 of them broke party ranks to support a previously passed bill that stopped individuals from Iraq and Syria from entering as refugees until new vetting standards were in place.
But changes to the visa-waiver program enjoy broad support. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) helped draft the language, he said Tuesday. Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) told reporters before the vote that the measure "ensures security."
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), also mandates that any country participating in the visa-waiver program must share intelligence information with the federal government and requires that they issue "e-passports."
The bill is not currently scheduled for a vote in the Senate even though it has bipartisan support in that chamber. It's likely that the Senate version, written by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), could be folded into a government spending bill Congress is negotiating.
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