Michael Cutler: U.S. Visa Waiver Program Should End

By Andrew Cochran

Michael Cutler asked me to post his comments about the Sunday Times article on Al Qaeda's recruitment in Britain:

I just received this article and again I am going to raise an issue I have been raising for many years. Why does the United States still have a Visa Waiver Program that makes it easy for aliens from 27 countries plus Canada to enter the United States when we are concerned that potentially aliens from those countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program may be involved in criminal activity and especially terrorism.

In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001 our nation has tightened security in many visible and not so visible ways. Trucks and other vehicles are often searched before they are permitted to drive across bridges or through tunnels. United States citizens are often asked for photo identification documents before they are permitted to enter building of particular concern including government buildings, broadcast studios and other building with potential strategic value. Before boarding trains and aircraft we must present photo identity documents and. if our conveyance is an airplane, we are divested of anything that could possibly be construed as a weapon including nail clippers and miniature tools. Yet, bowing to the demands of the travel industry and the hotel (hospitality) industry, our government steadfastly refuses to eliminate the Visa Waiver Program. In fact, it was not until August of 2003 that the Transit Without Visa Program was suspended. It has been stated that the government refused to end this program and merely suspended it- perhaps to revive it at some later date.

Our government took the position that in lieu of requiring aliens from the Visa Waiver Countries to apply for visas prior to seeking admission to the United States, our government would require the governments of the Visa Waiver Countries to produce machine readable passports that contained biometric identifiers in order to make those passports more secure. Each year the deadline for the issuance of such secure passports has been pushed back and now it appears that this requirement may be eliminated altogether. From my experience as a former immigration inspector and as a former senior special agent of the now defunct INS, I can tell you that the secure passport would have provided a measure of security (anything is better than nothing) but the best solution would be to require all arriving aliens to first receive a visa which, while not foolproof, would enhance the screening process by which beleaguered inspectors who now work for CBP decide on the admissibility or inadmissibility of aliens seeking authority to enter our country.

Inspectors are generally expected make that critical yea or nay decision in about one minute with little more to go on than information contained in several databases, a review of the passport and the answers to a couple of perfunctory questions. The pressure on the inspector is enormous. He or she knows that with only 2,000 ICE special agents who are dedicated to enforcing the immigration laws throughout the United States, any alien who gets past the admission process can easily hide in plain sight anywhere in the United States. Yet if that inspector dwells too long on the decision as to whether or not to admit an alien, criticism from a supervisor cannot be far behind. When I was a new inspector at John F. Kennedy International Airport in the early 1970s a couple of the old-timers took me and my new colleagues under their wings, so to speak, and admonished us that we would never get into trouble for letting someone in but there might be Hell to pay if we tried to keep someone out! From what I am told, the situation is a bit better now, but only marginally so.

The visa process, while not perfect is far better than no real screening process where an alien might well secure a passport in a false name, gain access to our country and take the lives of many innocent civilians or in other, less violent ways, act in support of a criminal or terrorist organization.

The Sunday Times article makes the point that last week's mass murder may have been carried out by British subjects. These individuals, just like Richard Reid, the infamous "Shoe bomber" are eligible to hop on an airliner and show up at a port of entry in the United States and seek admission to our country. If citizens of this nation are being subjected to the high levels of scrutiny that we are in the name of national security, why is our nation reluctant to demand that aliens, who have no inherent right to be here not also be subjected to a greater level of scrutiny?

Ironically, as a result of Richard Reid's attempt to destroy an airliner in flight by setting off bombs in his shoes, all airline passengers are now required to remove their shoes for inspection by the TSA officials. What our government refuses to deal with is the fact that Reid, as a British subject, was eligible to enter the United States without first securing a visa.

The visa process offers that extra layer of protection and offers an additional advantage. Under recent changes in law, when an alien commits visa fraud in support of drug trafficking, the penalty for that crime is now 20 years of maximum incarceration in a federal prison. An alien who commits visa fraud in support of terrorism faces a maximum of 25 years of incarceration. These charges and penalties can and are used to great advantage during the course of conducting drug or terrorist investigations. However, an alien who enters the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program cannot be prosecuted since are not required to obtain a visa before coming here.

I do not believe that requiring visitors who seek entry in our country to first obtain a visa is an unreasonable burden. The law permits the State Department to give aliens who appear to be credible, visas that last for 10 years. This is no greater a burden than some states impose on motorists who have to renew driver's licenses. In the high-stakes world of terrorism we now confront, it is time to eliminate the Visa Waiver Program and do what any sensible homeowner would do before opening the door to a visitor- making certain that he or she knows who they are letting in. The United States should do no less.

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