House moves to tighten visa security

WASHINGTON — Travelers from nations that don’t need visas to visit the USA would have to get visas if they have visited any of four countries thought to train terrorists, under legislation House Republican leaders unveiled Thursday. But Europeans are concerned that changing visa-waiver rules could discourage travel between the continents.

If European travelers, for example, visited Iraq, Iran, Syria or Sudan since 2011, they would have to get visas that require consular interviews and greater scrutiny overseas, rather than simply arrive with a passport, lawmakers said.

The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security could add more countries to the high-risk list during annual reviews as risks change, lawmakers said.

The secretary could also suspend countries from the visa-waiver program if they don’t readily share information about security risks of travelers, or report lost or stolen passports, lawmakers said. The secretary can suspect countries for imminent security threats, but the legislation would require continual sharing of information to avoid suspension, lawmakers said.

“We want to make sure that terrorists don’t come to the United States,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

The legislation is considered so popular that it will be brought to the floor Tuesday under rules that allow no amendments and require a two-thirds majority for approval. McCarthy said he expects the legislation to be approved overwhelmingly and be signed by President Obama.

The White House immediately embraced the House proposal. Josh Earnest, the press secretary, called it “a piece of legislation that would actually make the country safer.”

But David O’Sullivan, the European Union ambassador to the U.S., told Paste BN that visa-waiver members are concerned about lawmakers changing the reciprocal program on their own. Europeans are already discussing how to better share intelligence and strengthen Interpol’s sharing of databases after the Nov. 13 attacks Paris that killed 130 people, he said.

“We are really quite concerned about what is happening and fear that this could be extremely counterproductive,” O’Sullivan said. “We just need to do this in a way that makes sure it genuinely targets the people we would consider at risk and does not have the unintended consequence of obstructing the legitimate travel of the millions of people who cross the Atlantic every day."

The proposals come in the aftermath of Paris attacks that killed 130 people. Most of the attackers were European citizens who could have flown to the U.S. without visas. Security concerns since those attacks focused on how to discourage travel on fraudulent travel documents and prevent terrorists from arriving at all.

The visa-waiver program allows passengers from 38 countries — mostly European nations but also Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan — to visit the USA for 90 days or less without advance approval.

About 20 million people visited last year under the visa-waiver program that began in the 1980s to spur travel and the economy. But Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., who sponsored the legislation to potentially suspend countries from the program, said times and security concerns have changed.

“This really leaves our country vulnerable," Miller said. “For terrorists, travel documents are as good as weapons."

Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said the industry group has long supporter Miller’s proposal to strengthen security and information-sharing.

"When it comes to travel and tourism, nothing is more important than security,” Dow said

But Europe already considers it unfair that five of its countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania – aren’t members of the visa-waiver program, O’Sullivan said. U.S. moves to change the program for current members could become more contentious as those five countries attempt to join next year, he said.

“We think this is discriminatory,” O’Sullivan said of the five. “This is going to be an unhelpful contribution to that bigger discussion.”

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said visa-waiver countries participate with varying levels of security. The legislation aims to ensure that countries report lost or stolen passports to Interpol within 24 hours, and to screen all travelers against Interpol databases, to avoid being suspended from the visa-waiver program.

The bill also requires visa-waiver countries to have passports with electronic security chips holding biometric information about travelers, such as digital pictures and fingerprints, by April 1, 2016. The 38 member countries all have e-passports now and have been phasing them in, but not all eligible travelers hold them.

“It’s a very important program, but it’s also a privilege," Goodlatte said.

European passports tend to last for five to 10 years and have become expensive, O'Sullivan said, so people are reluctant to pay for documents with an electronic chip until the old one expires.

“People are not just going to throw away a perfectly valid passport,” O’Sullivan said. “You are basically installing a new form of visa.”

The provision to require visas for travelers who hold Western passports and visited any of the four countries, or who hold dual-citizenship with those countries, is similar to a Senate proposal from Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., which was also expected to gain broad support. Their bill focused on recent travel to Iraq and Syria.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said a September report found that 30,000 foreign fighters from 100 countries in the Syrian conflict over the Islamic State include 5,000 people with western passports who could easily travel to the U.S.

"That's the emergency concern that we have," McCaul said. The legislation "will strengthen the visa-waiver program, not abolish it."

Contributing: Gregory Korte