Calif. shooter's visa not fully vetted

Gregg Zoroya | USA TODAY Opinion

Show Caption Hide Caption Despite problems, San Bernardino shooter's visa was approved A Republican congressman says U.S. immigration officials granted San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik a spousal visa even though a key element in the vetting process was missing.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said Saturday that immigration officials did a poor job reviewing the financée visa application of Tashfeen Malik, one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., rampage that left 14 dead.

Goodlatte said he reviewed the application and found there was insufficient evidence to prove Malik and U.S. citizen Syed Rizwan Farook, had met in person — a requirement for a foreign national seeking a K-1 financée visa before being allowed entry into the U.S.

"Visa security is critical to national security, and it's unacceptable that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not fully vet Malik's application and instead sloppily approved her visa," Goodlatte, R-Va., 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 U.S. 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. Farook's passport indicates he entered Saudi Arabia on Oct. 1, 2013 and left around Oct. 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.

The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department have launched a review of the K-1 or fiance visa process. In addition, federal authorities said they will expand their examination of social media for all visa applicants.

Despite early reports, Farook and Malik did not publicly post a commitment to jihad and martyrdom on social media. But they did exchange private, direct messages embracing those views in the two years leading up to the shootings, according to FBI Director James Comey.

Goodlatte announced last week that the Judiciary committee is prepping a bill that would toughen the visa application review process by requiring in-person interviews for both the applicant and sponsor, checking of the applicant's employment and education as well as social media accounts, among other measures.

Contributing: Kevin Johnson