Letter to John Kerry, Secretary of State, and Daniel Ragsdale, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement - End Arbitrary Practice of Preemptively Denying Tourist Visas for Young Israelis

Letter

Dear Secretary Kerry and Acting Director Ragsdale:

As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, I am responsible for directing the Senate's oversight of the immigration functions of the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

In this regard, I write to express my concern about the tourist visa adjudication policy at our consulates in Israel. After receiving inquires from several constituents, my staff contacted your legislative affairs staff and learned that our consulates apparently have a policy to presumptively deny all tourist visa applications for young Israeli nationals who wish to visit the United States during the period in between the completion of their military service and the resumption of their university education. In addition, this presumptive denial policy has apparently been expanded to include all Israeli nationals who are of student age.

When my staff asked your staff why this arbitrary policy toward Israel was in place, we were informed that the State Department is concerned that these young Israeli nationals were going to violate the terms of their visas by, for example, selling Dead Sea cosmetics at shopping malls across the United States. Needless to say, even if there is a concern that a small segment of a group will violate their visas, this is no reason to have a policy of presumptively denying visas for an entire group of foreign nationals from one of our most important allies and global partners in the world.

I therefore respectfully ask you to end this presumption of denying tourist visas for young Israeli nationals. If you have a concern about certain people violating their visas, I ask that you work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to make sure that any and all visa violators are apprehended and removed. I have copied Daniel Ragsdale, the Acting Director of ICE, on this letter so that your agencies may coordinate to stop any visa violations that are indeed occurring. Heightened enforcement will stop the bad actors without the need to arbitrarily and capriciously exclude thousands of visitors who will come here to eat at our restaurants, shop at our stores, and stay at our hotels.

I thank you for your attention to this matter of utmost importance.

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