U.S. immigration officials may not have even interviewed Tashfeen Malik, the woman who joined her husband in gunning down 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., last week, before they allowed her to enter the country.
“We only interview people in the K-1 visa program where there is some issue that needs to be explored,” Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee Wednesday.
The agency gave Malik a K-1 visa, also known as a fiancee visa, allowing her to leave Saudi Arabia and enter the U.S. to marry Syed Farook.
Shortly after Malik swore allegiance to the Islamic State on Facebook, the heavily-armed couple slaughtered 14 of Farook’s coworkers and wounded 21 more. They died in a shootout with police.
Rodriguez said he could not share information on the the agency’s vetting of Malik, 29, who was born and raised in Pakistan, or Farook, 28, an American citizen whose application to bring Malik to the country required another review.
But Rodriguez said the agency, which is reviewing the cases and its visa process in the wake of the attack, does not interview all K-1 applicants, and is limited to checking the legitimacy of couples’ marriage plans when they receive K-1 requests.
“The only authority given to us by this Congress is to adjudicate the bona fides of the application,” Rodriguez said.
He declined to say if the agency wants expanded authority, but said they are considering implementing a more searching background check process.
Rodriguez’s admission defied the beliefs of many immigration experts, who have said they assumed the agency mandates interviews for K-1 applicants.
“It takes a lot to shock me, but this made me sit up in my chair,” said Jessica Vaughan, a former State Department consular officer who directs policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates immigration restrictions.
“If any category should have a mandatory interview, it would be a K-visa, and if anyone should be interviewed, it ought to be applicants from countries associated with terrorism,” she said. “That statement is very alarming.”
The testimony came after FBI Director James Comey told a Senate Committee that the couple, who met online, discussed executing a terror attack in the U.S. before Malik came to the U.S. in 2014.
The agency did not discover the couple’s radicalization, though it preceded their visa application.
“She immigrated here and 14 body bags later, we are trying to figure out what went wrong,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of immigration subcommittee. “How did we miss that twice?”
The attack has sparked widespread worry among Americans afraid other terrorists are plotting in their midst. It has boosted opposition to Obama administration plans to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees to the country.
Americans “have a right to know the immigration programs are being run in a way that does not put them in danger, and right now they don’t feel that way,” Gowdy said.
Committee Republicans faulted Rodriguez for declining to share information on the agency’s review of Malik and Farook due to privacy rules.
“They’re dead, so I don’t know that we’re terribly worried about their privacy,” Gowdy said.
Other Republicans ripped Rodriguez for prepared testimony that briefly mentioned security, but said President Obama’s executive order deferring deportation for undocumented immigrants, which federal courts have found unconstitutional, remains the agency’s top priority.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said he was irked at the director giving “lip-service” to security concerns while pressing ahead on an illegal deferment program.
“Americans do not believe that their interests are being put front and center when it comes to decisions about whether or not to issue an immigration benefit to a foriegn national,” Goodlatte said. “And your agency has the responsibility to show a commitment to reversing that belief.”
Rodriguez, though deferential to the panel, used his testimony to take a shot at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s widely-denounced call to bar all Muslims immigrants from the U.S.
“Violent criminals can come pretty much come from any faith, any nationality,” Rodriguez said. “They can be U.S.-born. They can be immigrants.”
“The worst thing that we can do to the terrorists that wish us harm,” he said, “is to continue to be a beacon to people throughout the world.”
This article has been updated with additional quotations.
