WASHINGTON.- US congressmen raised their voices this Thursday against a visa waiver system that benefits Chileans because they consider him responsible for an increase in crime in the United States.
Chile is the only country in Latin America that is part of the Visa Waiver Program, which allows you to travel to the United States for tourism or business and stay in the territory for a maximum of 90 days.
No visa is required, but permission is required through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
The government of the US president, Democrat Joe Biden, estimates that the country’s entry into the program in 2014 has allowed trips to quadruple.
But he acknowledges, as do some congressmen, that some people take advantage of him to enter the United States and commit robberies and robberies.
During a session in the House of Representatives, Republican Tom McClintock called it a “new crime tourism phenomenon” through which Chilean criminal gangs carry out “thefts of millions of dollars.”
The session, held at the Integrity, Security and Immigration Enforcement subcommittee, was attended by Bradley Schoenleben, Assistant District Attorney for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office in California.
“There is a loophole in the Department of Homeland Security’s ESTA visa waiver program that has allowed hundreds of thousands of Chilean citizens, including violent criminals, to enter the United States without having their criminal records checked,” he said.
This has opened “a direct pathway” for transnational organized crime networks to smuggle criminals into the United States, he said, calling for Chile’s participation in the program to be suspended until the problem is remedied.
According to him, in 2022 alone, more than 350,000 Chilean citizens entered the country thanks to this program.
Democratic Congressman Lou Correa claims to have made efforts to find out what’s going on and concluded that the problem is “crime databases that aren’t quite connected there.”
“Either it is fixed or that visa program is revoked, as it should be,” he said, specifying that it is not just about Chilean criminals but that there are European gangs that also take advantage of it.
A few weeks ago, the president of the House of Representatives, the Republican Kevin McCarthy, already requested the suspension of the program for Chile until the problem is resolved.
Chile is negotiating to maintain it and has promised to make changes that allow the security forces of the two countries “to exchange information immediately,” the Chilean ambassador to Washington, Juan Gabriel Valdés, told Chilean radio in June.
FOUNTAIN: AFP
