Carnage spurs visa panic
CALIFORNIA KILLINGS JEOPARDISE OBAMA’S PLANS TO ACCEPT REFUGEES FROM SYRIA
WASHINGTON: The woman who carried out the San Bernardino massacre with her husband came to the US last year on a special visa for fiances of US citizens, raising questions about whether the process can adequately vet people allied with terrorists.
Authorities said Pakistani citizen Tashfeen Malik, 27, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and its leader under an alias Facebook account moments before she and her husband, Syed Farook, opened fire on a holiday banquet for his co-workers on Wednesday, killing 14. They later died in a gun battle with police.
Malik, who had lived in Pakistan and visited family in Saudi Arabia, passed several government background checks and entered the US in July 2014 on a K-1 visa, which allowed her to travel to the US and marry within 90 days of her arrival.
Malik underwent a vetting process the US government says is vigorous, including in-person interviews, fingerprints, checks against US terrorist watch lists and reviews of her family members, travel history and places she had lived and worked. The process began when she applied for a visa to move to the US and marry Farook, 28, a Pakistani-American restaurant health inspector raised in California.
Foreigners applying from countries hosting Islamic extremists, such as Pakistan, undergo additional scrutiny before the State Department and Homeland Security Department approve permission for a K-1 visa.
“This is not a visa that someone would use because it is easy to get into the US, because there are more background checks on this type of visa than just about anything else,” said Palma Yanni, a Washington-based lawyer who has processed dozens of K-1 visas. “But fingerprints and biometrics and names aren’t going to tell you what is in somebody’s head unless they somewhere have taken some action.”
The government’s apparent failure to detect Malik’s alleged sympathies before the shootings will probably have implications on the debate over the Obama administration’s plans to accept Syrian refugees. Farook’s family lawyers deny the couple were extremists.
On Friday, US media reported the Pakistani address Malik listed on her visa application does not exist. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: “We are actively reviewing all of the information provided in the visa application and sharing it with our inter-agency partners as it relates to the investigation.” The vetting process for refugees is similar to the one for fiancevisa applicants. Refugees have in-person interviews overseas, where they provide biographical details about themselves and their families, friendships, social or political activities, employment, phone numbers and email accounts as well as biometric information. Syrians undergo additional classified controls.
“Can we improve the system as technology grows? There is always room for improvement, but to indict the entire fiance visa system because of this is not the right path,” said David Leopold, a past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Those who came into contact Malik said she was rarely seen in the Muslim community. “She never came to our mosque except once when they had their [wedding] reception... we never saw her again,” said Dr Mustafa Kuko, the director of the Islamic Centre of Riverside.