Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) is calling on Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Kristi Noem to reconsider visa applications from legal immigrants admitted to the United States under the Biden administration. The call for greater oversight of legal immigrants comes as the Justice Department said the Biden administration awarded a Gazan man a U.S. visa despite his alleged connection to the October 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
“I urge DHS to review all visas issued through high-risk countries beginning in 2021, prioritizing potential connections to Hamas or other designated terrorist groups,” Cotton wrote to Noem in a letter this week:
To prevent future violations, DHS Should Implement Enhanced Social Media Monitoring for Visa Applicants from High-Risk Regions and establish mandatory real-time checks of FBI watchlists to ensure no terrorist slips through undetected. [Emphasis added]
Cotton's request comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested Mahmoud Amin Yaqub Al-Muhtadi, 33, a legal immigrant from the Gaza Strip, in Lafayette, Louisiana, for his alleged involvement in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to the criminal complaintAl-Muhtadi is a member of the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The National Resistance Brigades took part in the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7.
Federal prosecutors say Al-Muhtadi learned of the Hamas attack that morning, subsequently armed himself with others and crossed into Israel in hopes of aiding terrorism.
(Left) Mahmoud Amin Yaqub Al-Muhtadi photographed handling firearms at his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (R) Glock Al-Muhtadi with ammunition. (Ministry of Justice)
Then, in June 2024, less than a year after the Hamas attack, Al-Muhtadi applied for an immigrant visa to live in the United States and met with a U.S. consular officer in Cairo, Egypt, in August 2024, where he stated that he had no affiliation with Hamas or the National Resistance Brigades.
Despite overwhelming evidence on his social media that he was affiliated with Hamas, prosecutors say the Biden administration allowed Al-Muhtadi to enter the U.S. legally and he did so on Sept. 12, 2024, through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Al-Muhtadi first began living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he obtained a state-issued driver's license, and then moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, where he worked at a local restaurant.
“Al-Muhtadi applied for a visa through the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, falsely denying his paramilitary training and terrorist involvement,” Cotton wrote in his letter to Noem. “Despite blatant evidence of this activity on his social media, the Biden Administration approved his application, granting him lawful permanent resident status and entry into the United States.”
As Cotton noted in his letter, since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Biden administration has processed thousands of visa applications from Gazans through Egypt, just as it did for Al-Muhtadi.
Cotton said visa applications were often processed “without properly analyzing digital footprints or cross-checking terrorist lists.”
Each year, the United States accepts more than a million legal immigrants and another million foreign nationals on temporary work visas. Through chain migration, legal immigrants who become naturalized American citizens can sponsor their foreign relatives to obtain green cards.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter Here.
