The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee expressed deep concern over the Obama administration’s change to immigration law, allowing those who have provided “limited material support” to terrorists the access to the United States.
According to Chairman Bob Goodlatte, the new policy amounts to another loophole in the nation’s immigration system.
“This loophole provides bad actors an opportunity to easily manufacture reasons that ‘forced’ them to provide material support to terrorists,” Goodlatte said in a statement Thursday. “With today’s national security threats, why would we ever willingly loosen our immigration laws to allow those who have helped terrorists game the system? The Obama administration should not weaken our laws so that those who have supported terrorists can take advantage of them.”
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State published the new exemptions in the Federal Register to narrow a ban in the Immigration and Nationality Act excluding refugees and asylum seekers who had provided limited material support to terrorists.
“These exemptions cover five kinds of limited material support that have adversely and unfairly affected refugees and asylum seekers with no tangible connection to terrorism: material support that was insignificant in amount or provided incidentally in the course of everyday social, commercial, family or humanitarian interactions, or under significant pressure,” a DHS official explained to The Daily Caller at the time.
Goodlatte, however, called the exemptions “naïve” given current terror threats, and pointed out the goal should be keeping Americans safe.
“President Obama should be protecting U.S. citizens rather than taking a chance on those who are aiding and abetting terrorist activity and putting Americans at greater risk,” he added.
He concluded by saying the “administration is abusing the powers granted it by Congress to provide relief in appropriate cases.”