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U.S. Sen. Grassley: Grassley weekly video address: Visa security
1/22/2010

Advisory for Iowa Reporters and Editors Friday, January 22, 2010

During his weekly video address, Senator Grassley talks about the need to update and improve the visa issuing procedures.


A transcript of the address is available below.

Grassley Weekly Video Address Visa Security

This week, I participated in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about how the Christmas Day terrorist was allowed to get on an airplane headed to Detroit. Senators questioned the director of the FBI and officials of the State Department and also the Department of Homeland Security.

In advance of the hearing, I started asking questions last week about the Visa Security program in U.S. embassies around the world, where foreign citizens are given access to the United States through the receipt of a visa. It turns out that only 14 of more than 220 foreign posts had personnel from the Department of Homeland Security to help State Department officials screen visa applications for security concerns. Several requests to place the necessary personnel overseas went unanswered for well over a year. For example, the request to place visa security personnel in the U.S. embassy in Yemen had been pending since September of 2008.

The night before the Judiciary Committee hearing, you know, I got word that the Department of Homeland Security had, at last, approved several visa security units and the requests were on their way to the State Department for final approval. It seems pretty obvious that the Homeland Security Department approved these requests because of the exposure brought by my pre-hearing letters of the inquiry and in anticipation of the Judiciary Committee hearing where a lot of questions would be asked. The department's response raises more questions about why there was a delay in doing what was necessary to get visa security units operating all around the world

As efforts continue to strengthen visa issuance procedures in the wake of the attempted Christmas Day bombing, I’ve also introduced legislation to close a big loophole in U.S. visa policy that allows people to stay in the United States after their visas have been revoked. That's because under current law, someone who's had a visa revoked could block their own deportation through our own U.S. court system. Clearly, a change in law is needed so that people who wish to do Americans harm are in fact deported, and our nation’s intelligence then is protected. I’ll work to see this legislation considered and hope to get it passed.




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