Another Reason To Deport Visa Waiver

By Bill West

An article in today’s Scotsman provides yet additional ammunition in the argument against the US Visa Waiver Program. The report discusses the recruitment of up to 1500 white, non-Muslim Britons within the British prison system by al-Qaeda to be terrorist operatives against the West. The US Visa Waiver Program, it should be remembered, allows citizens of some 27 nations, primarily western and northern European countries including Britain, to enter the United States temporarily as a “visitor” without the need for applying for a US visa. Shoebomber Richard Reid boarded the airliner he tried to destroy as a Visa Waiver entrant because he was a British citizen...and a radical Islamic terrorist convert.

The visa application process is by no means foolproof but it provides a layer of review and inquiry conducted outside the US, before a potential suspect ever reaches US soil, by US Government officials that may identify suspected security threats. An interview itself by an alert and competent consular official may be enough to spot a suspect. The Visa Waiver Program negates this layer of protection all in the name of making international travel a bit more convenient.

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