A British national took four Americans hostage inside a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, on Jan. 15.
After a dramatic 11-hour standoff, the hostages emerged safely and an elite FBI team entered the building. After a barrage of gunfire, authorities said that 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram had been killed.
Then reports circulated as to how Akram, a radical with a lengthy criminal record who was once monitored by British intelligence agencies, arrived in the United States, but it is still unclear. President Joe Biden’s federal agencies continue to dodge the question.
A federal official who spoke anonymously said Akram was granted a tourist visa. Other outlets reported that investigators believe he lied about his criminal record to enter the U.S. under the deeply flawed Visa Waiver Program, which is most likely.
The VWP allows foreign nationals from 40 countries to come to the U.S. without having to secure a visa by undergoing enhanced vetting beforehand. Those who enter under the VWP are allowed to stay for up to 90 days, though thousands overstay every year.
Since 9/11, presidents have routinely expanded the VWP, though Congress modestly reformed it in 2015 in response to an Islamic State attack in Paris and the shooting in California by a couple who expressed support for the terror group on social media.
Then, in 2017, former President Donald Trump took another critical step, issuing a proclamation to enhance vetting capabilities and processes for detecting attempted entry into the U.S. by terrorists or other threats to public safety.
“Screening and vetting protocols and procedures associated with visa adjudications and other immigration processes play a critical role in implementing that policy,” the proclamation said. “They enhance our ability to detect foreign nationals who may commit, aid, or support acts of terrorism, or otherwise pose a safety threat, and they aid our efforts to prevent such individuals from entering the United States.”
The Trump proclamation recognized that information-sharing, identity-management protocols, and the practices of foreign governments such as the United Kingdom are key components when it comes to the effectiveness of our screening and vetting protocols.
It called on federal agencies to “take all necessary and appropriate steps to encourage foreign governments to improve their information-sharing and identity-management protocols and practices and to regularly share identity and threat information with our immigration screening and vetting systems.”
Despite the commonsense, straightforward nature of this proclamation to enhance vetting of foreign nationals, Biden revoked it along with other immigration executive orders on his first day in office.
The Biden administration has taken additional steps to accelerate vetting over the past year, including waiving the in-person interview requirement for certain immigrant visa applications.
Could the Biden administration’s reckless approach to immigration and border security have benefited Akram? It is certainly possible.
What happened at the synagogue in Colleyville shows that we must continue to strengthen the vetting of foreign nationals who seek to enter the country, and Trump’s proclamation required relevant agencies to do just that.
The fact is this: Biden should have taken the time to understand his predecessor’s border security efforts and enhance them. There’s no evidence he has, so the people are left wondering if his administration’s pivot away from enhanced vetting to easier entry allowed for Akram to carry out his attack.
We’re hopeful that lawmakers and the media ramp up their oversight, and fast. The people deserve answers.
RJ Hauman is head of government relations and communications at the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
