Furious Republicans assailed the Obama administration Thursday for making changes to a visa entry program for foreign tourists that they characterized as illegal, The Hill reported on Jan. 21st.
They blasted the announcement, saying President Obama is abusing a minor provision in the law to create a series of loopholes aimed at placating Iran.
“The Obama administration is blatantly breaking the law, a law the president himself signed,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) — the author of the underlying bill — said in a joint statement on Thursday.
“President Obama is again putting his relationship with Iran’s supreme leader over the security of Americans,” they added. “He cannot rewrite the law to appease foreign governments — he should instead pay attention to his own.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday announced changes to the easy-entry visa waiver program, which allows citizens from 38 countries — including Australia, France and Japan — to enter the United States without a visa.
McCaul and Miller on Thursday said extra measures for Iran were discussed and “explicitly rejected” during negotiations over the visa waiver bill with the administration.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the head of the House Judiciary Committee, on Thursday said the administration has decided to “abuse” the waivers “in the face of reason and congressional intent.”
“The Obama Administration is essentially rewriting the law by blowing wide open a small window of discretion that Congress gave it for law enforcement and national security reasons,” he said in a statement. “In fact, the categories of people that the Obama Administration is exempting from the law were expressly rejected by Congress.”
The visa requirements will only apply to dual citizens and people who have visited Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria after March 1, 2011.