Rep. Mike Pompeo wants to know if the State Department plans to let Iranians or people who recently visited Iran to come to the United States without a visa, even though President Obama signed into law language aimed at forcing those travelers to get a visa.
Pompeo, R-Kan., who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter Tuesday to Secretary of State John Kerry asking about the Obama administration’s hints that it would waive the new law as it relates to Iran, which is a known sponsor of terrorism. The administration has said it could waive the law in order to avoid disrupting Iran’s business dealings, a commitment the U.S. made in the Iran nuclear agreement.
Pompeo’s letter included a list of questions for Kerry, including whether the administration plans to use a national security waiver for visas sought by Iranians or those now included in the visa waiver program who have traveled to Iran.
“Do Iran’s business interests rank higher than the safety of the American people in the mind of the administration?” Pompeo asked Kerry in the letter.
Pompeo added that waiving the visa requirement in those instances “is not in our country’s national security interests.”
Pompeo’s inquiry follows Kerry’s Dec. 19 letter to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in which he suggested the United States could waive the visa requirements for Iranians as part of the new nuclear arms deal.
The visa waiver restrictions were included in the fiscal 2016 spending bill signed into law by President Obama last week.
The legislation would end the visa waiver privilege now offered to western passport holders if they have traveled to Iraq, Iran, Syria or Sudan, which are considered breeding grounds for terrorism. Instead, those travelers would have to first apply for a visa before entering the United States, which would require a much higher level of scrutiny than simply entering with a passport.
