Speech #1140069274

Increasingly. we need a strategy that doesnt just handle the fight over there. We need a strategy to handle the fight here at home because of the danger of foreign fighters. of fighters going from the United States to the fight in the Middle East and then returning or people going to Europe. In particular. one concern has been raised by many of our Democratic colleagues is the use of the visa waiver. where you dont actually needthe 38 countries where you can travel to the United States without actually getting a specific visa or having to be interviewed by a consular officer at one of our embassies. This is a potential vulnerability for the United States. The third area beyond the fight over there. beyond the danger of people exploiting the flaws in our screening system within immigration. whether it is fiance visas. whether it is a visa waiver or whether it is refugeesthere is a third area the FBI Director talked about last week when he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He talked about homegrown terroristspeople like the ones in San Bernardino who did actually travel to the Middle East and come backbut he also included people in the United States. American citizens. I must admit I appreciated the FBI Directors understanding of the threat that ISIS poses. including their attempts to inspire people in this country to become terrorists and commit acts of violence. This Senator was astonished that the Department of Homeland Security would have a policy preventing the United States from screening the social media use by foreign nationals who are attempting to use our immigration system to come to the United States. In the instance of the female shooter in San Bernardino. it was revealed that using social media. she had posted things that should have been an alertif our immigration officers were doing their jobto the fact that she was likely to be a jihadist and be a threat here at home. Another threat we are going to have to deal with that Director Comey and the Deputy Attorney General raised is the use of encryption as a challenge that hinders the FBIs counterintelligence efforts against these ISISinspired extremists. Encryption applications are available on your cell phone. and some of the companiesApple. for examplemarket them because people want to keep their communications private.