Washington: US immigration officials did a "sloppy" job in granting fiancee visa to the Pakistani national Tashfeen Malik, one of the two shooters in the California gun rampage that killed 14 people, a top American lawmaker said on Sunday.
House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said he reviewed Malik's application and found there was insufficient evidence to prove the 29-year-old and US citizen Syed Rizwan Farook, had met in person - a requirement for a foreign national seeking a K-1 financee visa before being allowed entry into the US.
Goodlatte said: "It is clear that immigration officials did not thoroughly vet her application. In order to obtain a fiancee visa, it is required to demonstrate proof that the US citizen and foreign national have met in person. However, Malik's immigration file does not show sufficient evidence for this requirement. What is worse, the immigration official reviewing Malik's application requested more evidence to ensure the two met in person but it was never provided and her visa was approved anyway."
"Visa security is critical to national security, and it's unacceptable that US Citizenship and Immigration Services did not fully vet Malik's application and instead sloppily approved her visa," he said in a statement.
The application contained a statement by Farook that he and Malik had met in Saudi Arabia and copies of pages from their passports showing both had stamped entry visas into Saudi Arabia in 2013 that were written in Arabic.
The immigration official reviewing Malik's visa application to the US requested translation of the stamps into English to confirm the pair was in Saudi Arabia at the same time, however they were never provided, Goodlatte said.
The committee obtained its own translations of the stamps, Goodlatte said. Malik's passport indicates she entered the county on June 4, 2013 on a 60-day visa, however her exit stamp is illegible and the translator was unable to determine when she left. 28-year-old Farook's passport indicates he entered Saudi Arabia on October 1, 2013 and left around October 20, 2013.
Goodlatte said even if Farook and Malik were in Saudi Arabia at the same time, the stamps and statement alone do not provide sufficient evidence the two met in person.
"Since the Obama Administration refuses to take the steps necessary to fully vet visa applicants, the House Judiciary Committee is working on a bill to strengthen visa processing security and protect national security. We plan to introduce this bill soon so that we can better protect Americans and our country."
Malik and Farook killed 14 people at a San Bernardino, California county center on December 2. Both were fatally shot by police after fleeing the scene.
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