Look what ignorant Obama FORBIDS Homeland Security to check when vetting visa applicants...
In the wake of the San Bernardino terror attacks, we’ve all gotten a big fat wake-up call on apparent gaps in our screening process to admit people to this country.
As y’all know by now, one of the San Bernardino terrorists, Tashfeen Malik, was here in the U.S. on a fiancée visa and had passed not just one, but three, background checks before being admitted. And none of these checks uncovered posts Malik made publicly on social media proclaiming her support for ISIS and other forms of violent jihad.
But as frightening as that is, what may be worse is the reason for the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security’s policy PROHIBITING checking social media accounts as part of vetting for foreigners applying for U.S. visas. According to a new report by ABC News, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson chose not to end this secret U.S. policy prohibiting review of foreigners’ social media accounts, because he feared — wait for it — a civil liberties backlash and “bad public relations.”
The Independent Journal Review reports that none of the background checks that Tashfeen Malik, one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino terrorist attack uncovered posts she made on social media declaring her support for ISIS or other forms of violent jihad.
Had any of those posts been discovered during the multiple background checks run against her when she applied to move to the U.S. on a fiancée visa, she would have likely been denied entry.
The New York Times reported that it wasn’t until after the December 2nd attack on the Inland Regional Center, which left 14 people dead and another 21 people injured, that law enforcement officials discovered the old (and previously unreported) posts.You might ask, why would foreigners applying to stay in this country — coming from terrorist hotbeds, no less — not be subject to the most vigorous screening, using every means at our government’s disposal? This, even as controversy continues to rage about how much monitoring of its own citizens our government does supposedly in the name or our protection.
Well, apparently “optics” in this case were more important to the department whose sole reason for being is to protect Americans — and our homeland.Via The Hill:
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson decided against ending a secret U.S. policy that prohibits immigration officials from reviewing social media posts of foreigners applying for U.S. visas, according to a report by ABC News.
Johnson decided to keep the prohibition in place in early 2014 because he feared a civil liberties backlash and “bad public relations,” according to ABC.
“During that time period immigration officials were not allowed to use or review social media as part of the screening process,” John Cohen, a former acting undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security for intelligence and analysis, told ABC News…
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