WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today said that he has introduced legislation to close a loophole that allows an alien to stay in the country after their visa has been revoked on terrorism charges.
Under current law, visas approved or denied by consular officers are non-reviewable and are deemed final. However, if a visa is approved but later revoked, and that individual is on U.S. soil, the decision by the consular officer is reviewable in U.S. courts. This jeopardizes classified intelligence, may hinder investigations dealing with criminals and terrorists and make deportation nearly impossible. Grassley’s bill would treat visa revocations similar to visa denials because the right of that person to be in the United States is no longer valid.
“This was a security amendment that the Democrats rejected during debate of the 9-11 bill. Fixing this problem and keeping the public safe is too important to let it get bogged down in political maneuvering. We live in a very different world and a pre-9/11 mindset isn’t going to help keep terrorists out of the country,” Grassley said.
Grassley said his bill would constrain terrorist travel, which is one of the key goals of the 9/11 Commission. The Commission report states that AFor terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons. The United States should combine terrorist travel intelligence, operations, and law enforcement in a strategy to intercept terrorists, find terrorist travel facilitators, and constrain terrorist mobility.@
Grassley has been working on this issue since the Government Accountability Office exposed the loophole in June 2003. Grassley has pursued a change in law since then. He introduced legislation in 2004 and recently offered an amendment to the 9-11 bill that was debated in the Senate. Last year, he worked to include it in the comprehensive immigration legislation, but it was not included in the final bill.
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