Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
such as fingerprints. Fingerprint checks are conducted upon arrival in the United States, which is too late
for a terrorist who might try to detonate an explosive on a plane. As U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee
Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) said:
I would tell you, from a threat standpoint, Im probably more concerned with the visa waiver
program today. Were I in Europe already, and I wanted to go the United States, and were I not on
a watch list or a no-fly list and I wanted to get there, the likelihood is I would use the visa waiver
program before I would try to pawn myself off as a refugee.
Vulnerabilities in the VWP are aggravated by a loophole in federal law that permits VWP travelers to buy
firearms. Current law prohibits visa holders from other countries from purchasing guns, but excludes
travelers from the 38 VWP countries. In 1998, I authored a federal law that prohibits visiting foreign
nationals from buying or possessing a firearm in the United States if the foreigner has been admitted to
the United States under a nonimmigrant visa. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justices Office of Legal
Counsel determined that under the statute VWP travelers can legally purchase firearms because they have
not technically been admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa.
Last week, I introduced S. 2323, the Visa Waiver Program Firearms Clarification Act, legislation that would
close this loophole and clarify that the prohibition on buying firearms applies to foreign visitors whether
they enter with a visa or not.
Congress also must address another critical gap in our gun laws. Current federal law prohibits nine
categories of dangerous people from possessing firearms (e.g., felons, the mentally unstable, fugitives, etc.)
but not suspected terrorists. The Government Accountability Office found that from 2004-2014, people
who were on the FBIs Terrorist Watchlist tried to buy guns from American gun dealers at least 2,233
times. In 2,043 of those cases 91 percent of the time these suspected terrorists were able to successfully
buy the gun. I am an original cosponsor of S. 551, the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous
Terrorists Act of 2015, which would close this terror gap in our federal gun laws.
In conclusion, I respectfully request that you support the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Illinois and
encourage your Republican allies in Congress to work with Democrats to address the critical gaps in our
security infrastructure outlined above. Rather than targeting a few thousand refugees who are themselves
fleeing from terrorism and are the most thoroughly vetted travelers to the United States, you should focus
on 20 million VWP travelers who travel to our country and our state every year without adequate security
checks, as well as an unknown number of suspected terrorists who are able to legally purchase firearms and
dangerous explosives.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
RICHARD J. DURBIN
United States Senator
-30-