Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) is urging Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to re-review visa applications for legal immigrants admitted to the United States under the Biden administration. Calls for greater scrutiny of legal immigrants came after the Justice Department revealed that the Biden administration granted a US visa to a citizen of Gaza despite alleged ties to a Hamas terrorist attack on Israel in October 2023.
“I urge DHS to audit all visas issued through high-risk countries from 2021 onwards, with priority given to those with potential affiliations with 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 areas And establish mandatory real-time FBI watchlist checks to ensure that no terrorists go undetected. [Emphasis added]
Cotton’s request comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested Mahmoud Amin Yacoub al-Muhtadi, 33, a legal immigrant from Gaza, in Lafayette, Louisiana, for alleged involvement in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to a criminal complaint, al-Muhtadi is an operative 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 7 October.
Federal prosecutors allege that al-Muhtadi learned of the Hamas attack that morning and later armed himself with others and entered Israel in hopes of aiding terrorism.
(L) Mahmoud Amin Yacoub al-Muhtadi, photographed handling a gun at his residence in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (R) Al-Muhtadi’s Glock with ammunition. (Justice Department)
Then, in June 2024, less than a year after the Hamas attack, al-Muhtadi filed an immigrant visa application to remain in the US and in August 2024 met with a US Consulate official in Cairo, Egypt, where he claimed to have no involvement with Hamas or the National Resistance Brigades.
Prosecutors allege that despite overwhelming evidence on his social media linking him to Hamas, al-Muhtadi was cleared by the Biden administration to enter the US legally and did so through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on September 12, 2024.
Al-Muhtadi first lived 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 U.S. Embassy in Cairo, falsely denying his paramilitary training and terrorist affiliations,” Cotton wrote in her letter to Noem. “Despite overwhelming 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 – exactly like the case of al-Muhtadi.
Cotton said visa applications were often processed “without adequate review of digital footprints or terrorist watch list cross-checks.”
Each year, the United States admits more than one million legal immigrants and more than one million foreign nationals on temporary work visas. Through chain migration, legal immigrants, once they have acquired naturalized U.S. citizenship, can sponsor their foreign relatives for green cards.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
