WASHINGTON, 31 July 2005 — With the lingering specter of 9/11, and continuing terrorism attacks throughout the world, Saudis remain under scrutiny when applying for visas to enter the United States.
Despite a vote by the US Senate Friday to make virtually all the main provisions of the USA Patriot Act permanent, the Homeland Security Department has come under attack for allegedly inadequately screening Saudis for terrorism-related risks when they seek entry into the United States.
On Friday, congressional investigators issued a report prepared by the US Government Accountability Office (the GAO is the investigative arm of Congress), stating the department’s visa security officers, stationed in Riyadh and Jeddah, do not compile comprehensive evidence of their security checks.
The visa officers in Saudi Arabia “provided anecdotal evidence of their contributions to the visa process,” the GAO report said. It concluded that Homeland Security “does not maintain comprehensive data on the results of their activities, such as the number of cases for which (visa officers) recommended refusal, and thus is unable to fully demonstrate the program’s overall impact on visa operations.”
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, who was fired after his critical year-end report on the department’s flaws, said nine of the 10 temporary employees sent to Riyadh and Jeddah neither spoke nor read Arabic, despite the fact that most of the documents they review are written in Arabic and the sole language spoken by many applicants is Arabic. “The officers have to be language proficient,” Ervin said in an interview. “They need to be versed in the culture and country conditions. They have to be trained in interview techniques and fraud detection. And generally this was not the case with the officers that were sent.”
As part of creating the Homeland Security Department in 2002 — shortly after the 9/11 attacks, and after critics charged the State Department with being too lax in issuing visas to Saudi nationals — Congress stationed visa security officers in Saudi Arabia for a required review of all visa applications before they could be approved by the State Department.
The GAO also found flaws that it said hindered the visa security officers’ mission in Saudi Arabia. It said officers were:
— Stationed on a temporary basis until last month, causing inconsistency in operations;
— Forced to review applications that were initially rejected by diplomatic staff, limiting time that could be better spent on fraud prevention and detection training for embassy officials;
— Limited in number at Saudi diplomatic posts as a result of security concerns.
Congress appropriated $10 million for the visa security officer program this year, and Homeland Security has requested $15 million for 2006 to expand it to other US embassies and consulates.
Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said plans are under way to expand parts of the program, including more training, in Saudi Arabia, he said.
