Just before the holidays, President Obama signed into law the 2016 “Consolidated Appropriations Act,” which includes the “Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015.” This week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it has begun to implement the changes to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP).
Iranian-Americans and others have expressed concern that the new law will result in disparate treatment because of ancestry. It is important to be clear about what this law does — and does not do — in regard to travel to and from the United States.
The legislation does make important improvements to the waiver program, which allows for visa-free travel between the United States and 38 partner countries around the world.
It requires screening of all travelers against Interpol databases. It makes it harder to falsify identity by requiring fraud-resistant e-passports that contain biometric information. And it compels U.S. security agencies to conduct more frequent threat assessments of VWP countries.
The legislation does NOT address the travel of American citizens, and it does not bar any foreign nationals from traveling to the United States.
Rather, it requires that citizens of countries that participate in our visa waiver program — mostly Europeans — who have traveled to, and who are dual citizens of Iraq, Syria, state sponsors of terrorism (currently Iran and Sudan) or other designated countries participate in an in-person interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad in order to receive a travel visa.
Some individuals and organizations have expressed concerns about possible future reciprocal treatment by VWP countries, which might affect the visa-free travel of Americans. Our VWP partners have little to gain by reciprocating with similar restrictions. But these concerns arise from the fact that under the strict rules of some countries, an individual may be considered a national of that country based solely on the citizenship of one parent.
This is true even if parents fled as refugees from the government still in power and the offspring never set foot in the country. This is the case for many people of Iranian heritage living in the U.S. and Europe today.
The United States doesn’t allow other countries to decide for us who is an American, and we should not and need not allow another country to dictate what constitutes dual citizenship or nationality.
Some Americans seek dual citizenship as a matter of personal preference, and some even obtain citizenship of a third country. But this is very different from those individuals who are claimed as nationals by a foreign country based solely on their heritage, as is the case for Iranian-Americans.
The United States can lead our VWP partner nations by example and help protect Iranian-Americans from undue travel restrictions by not letting other countries determine what constitutes dual citizenship for us.
Iranian-Americans are a treasured part of our diverse American society. They have contributed immensely to our country in science, medicine, business and the arts. It would be hard to identify a group of Americans more committed to the essential elements of our free society — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, respect for others and the pursuit of happiness.
An essential American value is equal treatment under the law. We can and must ensure that implementation of the new Visa Waiver Program law does not discriminate against Americans of Iranian descent or anyone else based solely on one’s parentage.
Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, represents the 19th Congressional District. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, represents the 18th Congressional District. They wrote this for this newspaper.
