Mr. Chairman. I believe our Nation needs to secure its points of entry. and specifically I believe that we should prevent additional countries from joining the United States visa waiver program until we have technical and human resources to secure our points of entry. I do not believe our Nation can afford to allow more visitors in the United States without screening them prior to arrival. This amendment would prevent funds from being used to negotiate additional visa waiver countries. The State Department should not be using funds to negotiate new visa waivers until the machinereadable and tamperresistant biometric identification standards that were mandated by the U.S. PATRIOT Act as a cornerstone of the entryexit system are fully operational. We refer to that. Mr. Chairman. as the USVISIT program. There are currently 27 visa waiver countries. and I believe it is too risky to negotiate additional countries without first having our security screening system in place. Mr. Chairman. we cannot afford to provide more opportunities for terrorists to breach a loophole in our security. How much time does our Nation have before ICE. the Immigration Customs Enforcement. the air marshal or the TSA. Transportation Security Administration. misses the next Richard Reid? For example. Habib Zacarias Moussaoui. a French citizen of Moroccan descent. a name we all know very well. actually used his French passport. without a U.S. visa. on February 23. 2001. He flew from London to Chicago and on to Oklahoma City. where he began the flight training at an aviation school. Fortunately. on August 16. 20.01. INS arrested Moussaoui because he had remained in the United States well beyond the 90 days that were allowed under the visa waiver program entrants and be was in violation of the requirement that visa waiver program travelers enter for business or tourism. Had INS and law enforcement not been literally on top of their game. Mr.
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visa Immigration