Counterterrorism: The Visa Waiver Program’s Role in Strengthening Our Security

March 7, 2019

Thanks, [James Carafano] for that warm introduction. It’s a real pleasure to be back here at Heritage. I’d like to thank Heritage for hosting me and all of you for joining me.

Today, I’d like to tell you about one of our most important tools to keep terrorists from entering the United States – the Visa Waiver Program, or VWP.

That may sound like a paradox. How could waiving visas ever be good for counterterrorism?

In fact, the Visa Waiver Program is the gold standard for international security cooperation. The VWP helps us push our borders out: It enables us to identify terrorists attempting to travel here and stop them long before they reach our shores.

That’s because visa-free travel doesn’t mean vetting-free travel. As a condition of membership, our partners share valuable information that strengthens our national security, like terrorist watchlists and criminals’ fingerprints. They invest in sophisticated border security technology. They upgrade their passport security programs. And they amend their counterterrorism laws to address the new threat landscape.

In short, we’re all safer with the Visa Waiver Program than we’d be without it.

I’ll start my speech this afternoon with a quick overview of the persistent problem of terrorist travel. Then I’ll describe some of the VWP’s most important security features and why it’s a good deal for the American people. Finally, I’ll say a few words about the future of the program.

The Challenge of Terrorist Travel

Our terrorist enemies have global ambitions, which means they seek to travel across the globe. Whether they aim to strike their “far enemy” or establish a so-called caliphate, terrorists depend on travel to move fighters, money, and weapons.

We know that terrorists are continually probing for weaknesses in our borders. In 2001, shoe bomber Richard Reid attempted to detonate explosives aboard a plane flying from Paris to Miami. In 2006, terrorists planned to use explosives disguised as soft drinks to destroy a half dozen flights from the UK. And on Christmas Day 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to bring down a flight from Amsterdam by detonating a bomb hidden in his underwear.

The rise of ISIS saw a surge in terrorist fighters crossing international borders – some 40,000 FTFs are believed to have traveled to Syria and Iraq, including about 5,000 from Europe. We’re now on the verge of eliminating the remnants of the false ISIS caliphate in Syria. But that doesn’t mean the ISIS threat has been eliminated. The group’s leadership and foot soldiers see this as a setback, not a defeat. They’re actively working to continue the fight from ISIS’s worldwide branches and networks.

But ISIS is not the only threat.

Al-Qa’ida is rebuilding and maintains its desire to attack our homeland and our interests overseas. Then there’s Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. Tehran’s terrorist proxies have a truly global reach – especially Hizballah, which continues to target the U.S., our allies, and others around the world.

That means combatting terrorist travel will continue to be a top priority for the Trump Administration. Indeed, some 1,200 ISIS fighters have already returned home to Europe. Hizballah operatives have been arrested across Latin America. And our Asian and Pacific partners are also dealing with hundreds of terrorists who’ve traveled back to Southeast Asia from the Middle East. Stopping this travel requires continuing vigilance to prevent terrorists from exploiting our immigration systems, including the VWP.

The VWP’s Security Requirements

The Visa Waiver Program’s economic benefits are well known. In 2017, the United States welcomed more than 22.6 million visitors under the program. While they were here, they collectively spent more than $94 billion in our country. On average, VWP travelers spend 44 percent more during a trip to the United States than other visitors.

But in today’s threat environment, economics alone aren’t enough to justify the VWP. We also need to know that the program is secure. Fortunately, it passes that test with flying colors.

The criteria for membership are fairly straightforward. By law, member countries must have a nonimmigrant visa refusal rate lower than three percent. (In layman’s terms, that means consular officers have to assess there’s a low risk the country’s citizens will overstay their visas.) Members also have to implement a number of tough security measures to combat terrorist travel.

DHS is responsible for ensuring that countries meet the VWP’s strict security criteria. The State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, which I lead, plays a key role in ensuring the VWP is helping to secure our homeland and keep our citizens safe.

Let me say a few words about five key security requirements in the program.

First, there’s the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA. Citizens of VWP countries apply online before boarding their plane or ship to the U.S. DHS then screens their data to determine if they might pose a threat. If their ESTA is denied, they must apply for a visa at a U.S. embassy or consulate.

This vetting works because of a second VWP requirement – it gives us unprecedented access to other countries’ terrorism-related data.

One of the lessons we learned on 9/11 was the need to tear down the walls that kept officials within and among governments from talking to one another. We can’t allow ourselves to forget that vital lesson.

Under the VWP, member states must provide us with their watchlists of known and suspected terrorists. They also have to share information about serious criminals, including their fingerprints and other biometrics.

In addition, since 2017, VWP members have been required to screen travelers arriving in their countries against U.S. watchlists, and notify us about any encounters with potential terrorists. This dramatically expands our awareness of global terrorist travel and makes it harder for terrorists to cross borders anywhere. Think of it as a global neighborhood watch where everyone’s looking out for emerging terrorist threats.

Third, we’ve leveraged INTERPOL’s capabilities to enhance the security of the VWP.

VWP partners are required to report lost or stolen passports within 24 hours, either to INTERPOL or directly to the U.S. This helps us spot terrorists trying to travel on forged documents. In fact, VWP countries are responsible for over 70 percent of the 84.5 million records in INTERPOL’s database of stolen and lost travel documents.

We also recently began requiring member countries to report foreign terrorist fighter identities to organizations like INTERPOL and Europol. When our partners – and also non-VWP countries – screen against these databases, it makes it that much harder for terrorists to travel freely.

Fourth, the VWP helps us spot unknown terrorists – the ones hiding in plain sight.

The VWP’s intensive information sharing requirements enable us to stop travelers who’ve been watchlisted. But we need to do more if we’re going to stop terrorists who’ve managed to escape notice. To help flag these previously unidentified threats, we’ve called on our VWP partners to analyze Passenger Name Record data, or PNR.

PNR is the information you give an airline when you book a ticket. It generally includes your itinerary, your contact information – like your phone number and email address – and other data.

The United States began using PNR in 1992, and in 2002 collection became mandatory for all flights to and from our country. We made it a requirement for VWP members in 2015.

PNR is one of the most valuable weapons in our counterterrorism arsenal, because it draws connections between known terrorists and their unknown associates. The technique is called “link analysis.” If a traveler has booked a ticket with the same phone number as, say, the underwear bomber, he probably deserves a closer look than a typical airline passenger.

In fact, if investigators had applied simple link analysis techniques to PNR and related data, they could have uncovered the ties among all 19 of the 9/11 hijackers.

We can also use PNR to spot potential terrorists based on their travel patterns. We can tell if a traveler flies with a companion who’s on a watchlist. We can tell if a passenger’s current travel varies from previous routes. We can tell if a traveler is taking odd routings to get from point A to point B.

Fifth, the VWP isn’t just about sharing threat information or screening travelers. It also enables DHS to evaluate partners’ border security and passport facilities – which we wouldn’t get from countries subject to normal visa-based travel.

DHS experts regularly visit VWP countries to inspect airport security, see how border officials screen travelers, visit refugee-processing facilities, and check that government offices are issuing passports to genuine applicants. No other program enables us to conduct such sweeping and consequential assessments of another country’s civilian security operations.

Why are member states willing to live up to these strict security requirements? Part of the answer is that, like the U.S., they take seriously the threat of international terrorism.

But partly it’s because the benefits of visa-free travel are worth it to them. In short, the VWP is a carrot with which we can induce member states to live up to the very highest security standards. It buys us data and cooperation we otherwise wouldn’t get. Because of the VWP, we have more watchlists, more fingerprints, and more leverage. And more security.

What Comes Next?

Of course, the terrorist threat isn’t static. Our adversaries are constantly adapting, so the Visa Waiver Program must adapt too.

Here at home, this process of analysis and improvement is continuous. DHS is now examining what additional safeguards VWP partners should use to protect their airports from “insider” threats.

We’re also continuing to strengthen our own security measures. In December, we launched the new National Vetting Center. This coordinated, interagency effort provides a clearer picture of threats posed by travelers seeking to transit our borders. The National Vetting Center’s first focus is VWP travelers. Its analysis of the data from online ESTA forms will give our border officials more timely information for making entry decisions. The National Vetting Center also provides a platform for future enhancements to the vetting process, allowing us to adapt to future threats.

Looking beyond our borders, the security tools we pioneered under the VWP – ESTA, watchlists, biometrics, PNR – are now global norms. We proved that they work, and the rest of the world is following our example.

In December 2017, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a tough, landmark resolution on terrorist travel. Resolution 2396 requires all UN members to use tools like watchlists and PNR. 2396 internationalizes American policies and practices. It’s the most important resolution on terrorist travel the UN has ever adopted.

Similarly, the European Union is now setting up its own ESTA-like system. In future years, Americans and other visa-free visitors to the EU will have to provide biographic information via an online form before they travel to an EU country. The EU also now has its own PNR directive for screening travelers for potential terrorist threats.

Going forward, we’ll continue using the VWP as a lever to induce other countries to embrace state-of-the art border security.

For that reason, we’re also open to welcoming new members that meet the program’s strict criteria. The VWP is one of several overlapping international counterterrorism frameworks that form the foundation of a more secure world. Along with organizations like the Global Counterterrorism Forum and INTERPOL, VWP partnerships help us set durable global counterterrorism norms. And we’re able to spread those norms by transplanting VWP standards into UN Security Council Resolutions like UNSCR 2396.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be tempting to make the lazy assumption that security necessarily competes with other national priorities. It’s security vs. prosperity, and if we achieve more of one we have to make do with less of the other.

Under the VWP, that’s a false choice. We can and do have both. The program produces extraordinary economic benefits for the American people, while simultaneously hardening our borders against terrorist travel.

The risks posed by ISIS, al-Qa’ida, and Iran-backed terrorist groups are significant and continuing. As the world grows smaller, the threat becomes greater. Strong and adaptable policy solutions like the VWP enable us and our allies to prevent terrorism in a way that also benefits our economies. We remain committed to making sure that our partners have the right tools and are using them effectively to stop terrorist travel, improve border security, and counter threats to the United States.

Thank you for your time here today, and I look forward to your questions.