How much more extreme would President Bannon like the vetting process to be?
John Oliver explained in 2015. This was the procedure under President Obama. This longer clip gives more background, but if you don’t have time I have a transcription of the Obama vetting process below.
I had forgotten that I had transcribed the meat of this clip from Last Week Tonight last year, but ran across it again last night. With the “inadequate" vetting process a Reptublican talking point, everyone needs to see this if you haven’t before. This is already ridiculously extreme. As has been pointed out, neither President Bannon nor Trump have been nearly as vetted. Emphases mine.
For the record here, let me walk you through what our screening process actually is: If you are a refugee, first, you apply through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which collects documents and performs interviews. Incidentally, less than 1% of refugees worldwide end up being recommended for resettlement. But if you are one of them, you may then be referred to the State Department to begin the vetting process.
At this point, more information is collected; you are put through security screenings by the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security; and if you are a Syrian refugee you will get an additional layer of screening called the Syria Enhanced Review, which may include a further check by a special part of Homeland Security, the USCIS [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services], Fraud Detection, and the National Security Directorate; and don't relax yet because we have barely even started. Then you finally get an interview with USCIS officers, and you will also be fingerprinted so your prints can be run through the biometric databases of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense; and if you make it through all that, you will then have health screenings; which, let's face it, may not go too well for you, because you may have given yourself a stroke getting through this process so far; but if everything comes back clear, you will be enrolled in cultural orientation classes, all while your information continues to be checked recurrently against terrorist databases to make sure that no new information comes in that wasn't caught before.
All of that has to happen before you get near a plane. This process typically takes 18 to 24 months once you have been referred by the U.N. to the United States. This is the most rigorous vetting anyone has to face before entering this country. No terrorist in their right mind would choose this path.
To be thorough, I checked with the State Department. There are not many details and the information has now been archived, but it verifies the basics of John Oliver’s explanation.
During the campaign, OranguTrump’s bright idea was to ask them if they are Christian before admitting them. If they say they are Christian, then okay, let them in. It never seemed or seems to occur to him that terrorists might lie about that in order to gain entry to our country nor that there are Christian terrorists. Sure, Bannon/Trump. Your better ideas would do more than the experts to keep America safe. Eye roll.
But let’s discuss. Please answer the poll and leave a comment regarding your answer.
Please do this today as your patriotic duty, because the court hears arguments this afternoon/evening (beginning at 3 PM Pacific time, which is 6 PM Eastern time). You never know, you may have exactly the procedure this country needs! Ninth Circuit hearing over travel ban lawsuit will be streamed live Tuesday