In a recent letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Rep. Bob Dold (R-IL) lead more than a dozen House members in calling on the Obama administration to enforce the new, bipartisan anti-terror reforms in the Visa Waiver program.
The anti-terror reforms were passed by the House in a 407-19 vote at the start of December. Kerry, however, has indicated that the new visa requirements can be waived by the administration in regards to visitors to Iran.
“There is no legitimate justification to create a special exemption for Iran from an anti-terrorism and security law that was specifically designed to include Iran,” Dold wrote in the letter. “Iran does not get to veto U.S. security measures. Therefore, it is imperative that the Obama administration enforce the law with respect to the new, bipartisan anti-terror reforms in the Visa Waiver Program and not create a special carve-out for Iran.”
Passed by the House with almost unanimous support, the Visa Waiver reform law was included in legislation signed by President Obama. The reform denies individuals who have traveled to a country that is “designated by the Secretary of State under section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act of 1979, or any other provisions of law, as a country, the government of which has repeatedly provided support of acts of international terrorism” from the Visa Waiver Program. Iran has been designated by the U.S. Department of State as a State Sponsor of Terror for more than 20 years.
“The facts here are simple: Iran remains one of the world’s leading State Sponsors of Terror, and a new U.S. law – which passed Congress in a bipartisan fashion and was signed by President Obama on December 18, 2015 – states that individuals who have traveled to such a country are not eligible for the Visa Waiver Program,” the letter said. “Instead, if nationals of the 38 Visa Waiver Program participating countries have recently visited Iran and wish to travel to the United States, they must follow the procedures that apply to travelers in the rest of the world. This simply means that these individuals undergo the screening traditionally required to receive a visa, and must obtain a visa from a U.S. consulate abroad before entering the United States.”
U.S. officials confirmed this week that Kerry sent Javad Zarif, his Iranian counterpart, a letter that promised that the new restrictions would be waived by the administration for Iran after Zarif cautioned that including Iran could violate the Iran nuclear agreement by disincentivizing business travel to Iran.