The coming bipartisan betrayal on Middle East refugees & visas

Are you ready for the GOP betrayal to end all betrayals?

Republicans in Congress are prepared to take the positive energy from the public demanding reform of immigration from the Middle East and deflect it into a shiny object issue that literally changes nothing – all while granting Democrats a much needed loin-cloth to cover their appalling open borders policies.

According to recent polling data, 84% of Americans believe immigration from the Middle East is “very or somewhat dangerous” and just 25% of Americans and 38% of Democrats want to bring in Syrian refugees.  Yet, Republicans have been doing everything in their power to ignore the issue of immigration and visas form the Middle East.  Now they plan to fund every penny of the corrupt, lawless, and dangerous refugee program in the upcoming budget bill.

What is their plan to deflect public outrage?

They plan to focus on visas from Europe instead of the Middle East and Syria and do it in such a vacuous and dishonest fashion that even Pelosi and Obama are championing the bill.  In fact, they love this bill because it is the “Corker-Cardin” equivalent of the Iran loin cloth bill that bails the Democrats out from being on the hook with voters and gives off the veneer of being tough on national security.

As we noted last week, there is a secondary concern with regard to radical Islamists traveling here on visas from first-world European countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program, meaning foreign nationals from those countries do not need an in-consulate interview in order to obtain a temporary visa to travel to the U.S.

I call it a secondary concern because despite the problems in France, nobody can deny that even today travelers from France don’t pose anywhere near the risk of the Islamists who travel directly from the Middle East, such as the San Bernardino terrorist who came here on a K-1 visa from Pakistan.

Nonetheless, it would be prudent, as a secondary policy reform to shutting off the refugee program from the Middle East, to require visas from anyone who travels here from several European countries that have large Islamic populations.  This bill, sponsored by Dianne Feinstein and Jeff Flake, however, does not drop a single country from the visa waiver program (VWP). In fact, it does not prevent a single terrorist from entering our country.  It does nothing to change current policy.

Here is how it works.

The Flake/Obama bill suspends the VWP only for those individuals known to have traveled to Iraq and Syria over the past 5 years (the House version adds a few more countries), thereby requiring those individuals to obtain a visa in order to travel to the U.S.  But most potential radical jihadis living in Europe have never travelled to those countries or have instead travelled to other Islamic countries (like Saeed Farook who traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan).  Moreover, the ones that did travel to Iraq and Syria are usually not on any sort of watch list that we would detect.

And finally, if they are indeed on a watch list, then we would know about it anyway under current policy. The entire point of the VWP is for first world countries with secure and effective databases to share information and flag anyone who is a security risk.  That is why we don’t require a visa.  So under existing law, anybody who travelled to these countries should be inadmissible, let alone require a visa to come here.  Hence, this bill does not change the reality of a single potential terrorist, unless DHS officials would be willing to turn away those who have Iraq or Syria stamped on their passports.

Thus, it is clear the bipartisan elites are deflecting attention from immigrant visas from Islamic countries with no legitimate vetting tools to nonimmigrant visas from first world countries with solid databases!

It’s no wonder the travel industry, which stridently opposes any secure restrictions on travel, is openly supporting the bill. Typically, when Democrats are on the political ropes they divert attention from 99% of the problem and concede 1% to the American people.  In this case, it’s zero percent.  This bill literally does nothing.

Republicans are just as desperate as Obama to ignore the real issue – growing mass migration from the Middle East.  They will do everything in their power to ignore the issue of Islamic refugee resettlement, even as Obama violates federal law and resettles Sharia-adherent migrants without the consent or even consultation of the states.

Unfortunately, unless the American people wake up, this new focus on European visas will serve as the perfect diversion for the perfidious bipartisan groups of political elites.

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