San Antonio Congressman Will Hurd has introduced two bills designed to deal with the growing problem of terrorists slipping into the US under the guise of 'refugees,' without moving into the legally questionable tactic of a travel 'ban' which has been proposed by President Trump but has been blocked by several courts, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Hurd's bills would strengthen screening procedures before granting visas, and would authorize the State Department to assign employees to at least fifty visa issuing diplomatic missions to judge the adequacy of local screening procedures.
"If we get the right information to the right people at the right time, we can stop bad guys in their tracks," said Hurd (R-San Antonio), who is a former CIA undercover operative in the Middle East.
Hurd says since 2013, ISIS alone has hatched 37 plots to attack the US, and there have been 78 attacks planned in Europe.
"Many of our European partners were not tracking travel documents," he said. "It was like only one in three were checked."
Hurd points out that the attack in Manchester England last month that killed 22 people is a 'horrific reminder' that extremists are 'exploiting security gaps,' and loopholes must be eliminated.
"There is software that we could be sharing with out allies that would not only improve information sharing with their own governments, but also improve information sharing with us," he said.
Previous attempts to keep terrorists out of the US have been ruled to be unconstitutional, like the 'travel ban,' or have been seen as largely ineffective, like the stalled plan to build a wall along the U.S. Mexico border
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