Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) is urging Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to re-review the visa applications of legal immigrants admitted to the United States under the Biden administration. The call for greater scrutiny of legal immigrants comes after the Justice Department revealed that the Biden administration rewarded a Gaza citizen with a visa to the United States despite his alleged ties to the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel in October 2023.
“I urge DHS to conduct an audit of all visas issued through high-risk countries since 2021, prioritizing potential affiliations with Hamas or other designated terrorist groups,” Cotton wrote to Noem in a letter this week:
To avoid future violations, DHS must implement enhanced social media monitoring for visa applicants from high-risk regions and establish mandatory real-time checks on the FBI watch list to ensure no terrorist goes undetected. [Emphasis added]
Cotton’s request comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, 33, a legal immigrant from Gaza, in Lafayette, Louisiana, for his alleged involvement in the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
According to a criminal complaint, Al-Muhtadi is an agent of the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The National Resistance Brigades participated in the October 7 terrorist attack against Israel.
Federal prosecutors allege that Al-Muhtadi learned of the Hamas attack that morning and subsequently armed himself with others and crossed into Israel in hopes of aiding terrorism.
(Left) Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi photographed handling a firearm at his residence in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (R) Al-Muhtadi’s Glock with ammunition. (Department of Justice)
Then, in June 2024, less than a year after the Hamas attack, Al-Muhtadi submitted an application for an immigrant visa to live in the United States and met with an official at the American consulate in Cairo, Egypt, in August 2024, where he claimed to have no relationship with Hamas or the National Resistance Brigades.
Despite overwhelming evidence on his social media that he was linked to Hamas, prosecutors allege, Al-Muhtadi was approved by the Biden administration to enter the US legally and did so on September 12, 2024, through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Al-Muhtadi began living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he obtained a state-issued driver’s license, before moving to Lafayette, Louisiana, where he worked at a local restaurant.
“Al-Muhtadi applied for a visa through the US Embassy in Cairo, falsely denying his paramilitary training and terrorist affiliations,” Cotton wrote in his letter to Noem. “Despite blatant evidence of these activities 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, following the October 7 attack on Israel, the Biden administration processed thousands of visa applications from Gaza citizens through Egypt, just as in Al-Muhtadi’s case.
Cotton said visa applications were often processed “without adequate fingerprint review or cross-checks against terrorist watch lists.”
Annually, the United States admits more than one million legal immigrants and one million more foreigners on temporary work visas. Through chain migration, legal immigrants, once they obtain naturalized U.S. citizenship, can sponsor their relatives abroad to obtain green cards.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
