Zinke Votes for Visa Waiver Reform

As posted when Sen. Jon Tester introduced the bill to the Senate and written about by Tom Egelhoff just today; Congressman Ryan Zinke has voted for The Visa Waiver Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. Zinke was an cosponsor on the legislation; it passed the House with veto-proof, bipartisan majority (407-19-8) and goes to the Senate with the support of the White House.

“Today I voted to strengthen national security and close the deadly loopholes found within our own visa system,” said Rep. Zinke. “Today’s vote is about identifying threats and vulnerabilities within our own system, and closing them as soon as possible. The fact that 5,000 E.U. citizens who have travelled to Iraq, Syria and other hotbeds of terror in order to fight with ISIS are able to come to the U.S. so easily is a testament to how desperately we need to update our entire immigration and visa system. This also brings to light the need to revoke passports of U.S. citizens who are fighting alongside ISIS. We know it’s happening, and this Administration is doing nothing to stop it or prevent them from coming back to the states.”

The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows citizens from that nation to travel to the U.S. without a visa for 90 days. Currently, 38 countries participate in the VWP including some of our closest allies like the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. With more than 5,000 European citizens known to have traveled to the Middle East to train and fight with ISIS, the vulnerabilities this presents are immense.