Thread: New Audit Finds 7.1 Million Visa Applicants Not Interviewed

New Audit Finds 7.1 Million Visa Applicants Not Interviewed






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July 1, 2024







FAIR Staff





FAIR Take | July 2024


Last week, the Homeland Security Inspector General (IG) issued a formal alert to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), informing the agency of an “urgent issue” requiring immediate attention.

In its alert, the IG reported that 7.1 million foreign nationals were granted visas, and presumably allowed entry, even though government officials had not interviewed the aliens, and in some cases, had not even collected fingerprints. The report highlighted information sharing gaps that are reminiscent of errors made leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Inspector General reported that the State Department’s decision to waive interviews, and in some cases fingerprints, was an attempt to manage staffing shortages and backlogs that developed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the Inspector General discovered that CBP, the agency protecting our borders, was unaware which nonimmigrant visa holders arriving at the border had received only limited screening by the State Department.

Having that information, the IG said, would have triggered officers to do additional screenings and “to make more informed decisions” upon inspection.

This failure, according to the IG, was due to a lack of information sharing between the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

The State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs is responsible for screening and vetting foreign nationals who wish to enter the United States on a temporary basis though a nonimmigrant visa. The State Department, however, has a history of attempting to fast-track its consular duties. Before 9/11, concerns were raised about a State Department program called “Visa Express” that allowed visa applicants to travel to the U.S. without being interviewed in-person by a government official. This program was set up 3 months prior to the terrorist attacks, allowing countless foreign nationals to bypass stringent vetting, including 3 of the 19 hijackers.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to require in-person interviews of visa applicants. However, Congress also allowed officers to waive interviews for certain applicants, when “in the national interest.”

The Inspector General noted that in 2020, the State Department again began waiving interviews and, sometimes, the collection of fingerprints, on a large scale under the pretext of alleviating backlogs and staffing shortages caused by COVID-19.

The authority to waive interviews was to end in December 2023, but the State Department doubled-down and, with the agreement of the Department of Homeland Security, actually expanded the categories of visa applicants eligible for interview waivers on condition that CBP officers would be informed of who was bypassing the interview requirement.

In early 2024, the Department of State finally established a connection to CBP’s technology systems – previously nonexistent – so that CBP officers could see into a visa holder’s records. But, the information now flowing from the State Department was not available to all officers. As the Inspector General details, senior CBP officials claimed they did not provide all of the information to all officers for fear of “inundating” the process and “overload[ing] officers with information.”

In short, instead of screening people overseas where they pose a minimal risk to Americans, the State Department, in an attempt to cut its workload, shifted its responsibilities to CBP front line officers—who are already overwhelmed with millions of illegal aliens crossing the southern border or flying in through illegal parole programs.

Then, compounding the problem, CBP failed to give its officers all the information necessary to do their jobs. The Inspector General report states that, “More than 4 years after the waiver expansion began, CBP has no assurance that individuals with waivers who arrived at U.S. ports of entry from 2020 to 2023 were identified at [redacted] for further screening.”

The Inspector General made two key recommendations to CBP, including recommending that CBP work with the National Targeting Center to establish other means to manage risks, if any, posed by visa holders who received interview waivers. It also recommended that CBP develop and implement a comprehensive plan to analyze trends and risks posed by aliens whose consular interviews were waived. CBP concurred with the recommendations.

Open border policies expand beyond the reach of our physical borders. This report sheds light on ways the administration is attempting to cut corners and reduce workloads in order to streamline the pathway for foreign nationals to enter the United States.

Congress should revisit the interview exemptions it provided under the law and severely limit or do away altogether any waiver of the personal interview for visa applicants – for the sake of national security and the safety of Americans.


https://www.fairus.org/news/executiv...ot-interviewed