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the weekend, Visa Express finally closed shop when its maker, the U.S.
State Department, officially declared that Saudis could no longer submit
their visa applications to travel agents and that all applicants, save
for diplomats and children, will be interviewed. (Interestingly, though,
Arab
News reports that Saudi travel agents are not yet aware of the
program's demise, and the
website for the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh has not been updated.)
Though the cancellation of Visa Express certainly shores up our border security, it should not detract from congressional efforts this week, led by Reps. Dave Weldon (R, Fla.) and Dan Burton (R, Ind.), to strip visa authority from State and hand it over to the new Department of Homeland Security.
The central fact Congress must remember as it considers a transfer of visa powers is that all 19 of the 9/11 hijackers came here on legal visas. While the new department cannot keep out all terrorists seeking visas, it certainly can do no worse that State has on this count.
State is solely responsible for the lax visa policies that have taken root as part of the "courtesy culture," where the convenience of foreign visa applicants has trumped security concerns, and in many respects still does.
One of the main reasons State has cited for eliminating interviews is that the two-to-three minute interrogation would be "an unnecessary inconvenience" for visa applicants who appear fine on paper.
Although State has somewhat ramped up the number of interviews worldwide (but not nearly enough), the quality of interrogations has not improved post-9/11. State has yet to develop a protocol for screening out terrorists, with still no law-enforcement techniques incorporated into the interview process.
But the discussion about the quantity and quality of interviews does not speak to the need for Homeland Security to take over visa issuance as much as State's reckless handling of Visa Express, a program that let in three of the Sept. 11 terrorists in the three months it was in operation before 9/11.
Rather than shutting down Visa Express the moment State knew that 15 of the 19 terrorists came here from Saudi Arabia, State only closed this open-door policy after intense criticism. The delay is why State cannot be trusted with the job of safeguarding our border security.
Unlike, State, Homeland Security would view visa issuance as a law-enforcement function. Though there's no guarantee, the new department would likely treat applicants from countries that pose known terrorist threats, such as Saudi Arabia, with the scrutiny those applicants warrant. It's also a good bet that Homeland Security agents would be given the freedom by their superiors to ascertain more than someone's name during an interview.
Though the Select Committee on Homeland Security sided with State on Friday in not moving visa authority, the full House may well not play along. Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose arm twisting and cajoling of members on key committees has been instrumental in keeping visa powers within State in early versions of the bill, is preparing to leave the country, so his lobbying efforts may actually be curtailed.
State may have shut down Visa Express over the weekend to keep Congress at bay, much as it did two weeks ago — on the day before two congressional committees were set to vote to strip visa powers from State — in sacking Mary Ryan, the woman who for nine years headed up Consular Affairs (CA), the agency within State that oversees consulates and visa issuance. In fact, a top CA official admitted the basis for the timing of the CA chief's firing at a staff meeting last week.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Dianne Andruch, one of Mary Ryan's former underlings, told fellow CA employees last week that her old boss's dismissal the previous week "saved the visa function," and that because of her departure, Powell was able to get enough votes in committee to keep the visa power within State.
State may think that canning Mary Ryan and ending Visa Express are enough to sway Congress, but let's hope that Congress is propelled more by popular pressure to strengthen our border security. A lot more than State's power base is at stake.
— Joel Mowbray is an NRO contributor and a Townhall.com columnist.