Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is urging Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to re-review visa applications from legal immigrants admitted to the United States under the Biden administration. The call for more scrutiny of legal immigrants comes after the Justice Department revealed that the Biden administration rewarded a Gaza citizen with a visa to the U.S. despite his alleged ties to Hamas’s 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 prevent future breaches, DHS must implement enhanced social media monitoring for visa applicants from high-risk regions and establish mandatory real-time FBI watchlist checks to ensure no terrorist slips through undetected. [Emphasis added]
Cotton’s request comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested 33-year-old Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, a legal immigrant from Gaza, in Lafayette, Louisiana, for his alleged involvement with the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
According to a criminal complaint, Al-Muhtadi is an operative with 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 on Israel.
Federal prosecutors allege that Al-Muhtadi learned of the Hamas attack that morning and subsequently armed himself along with others and crossed into Israel in the hopes of aiding in terrorism.
(L) Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi photographed handling a firearm 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 live in the U.S. and met with a U.S. consulate official in Cairo, Egypt, in August 2024, where he claimed to have no involvement 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 legally enter the U.S. and did so on Sept. 12, 2024, through the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Al-Muhtadi first began living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he secured 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 his letter to Noem. “Despite blatant evidence of these activities on his social media, the Biden administration approved his application, granting him legal 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 like Al-Muhtadi’s case.
Cotton said the visa applications were often processed “without adequate review of digital footprints or terrorist watchlist cross-checks.”
Annually, the U.S. admits more than a million legal immigrants and a million more foreign nationals on temporary work visas. Through chain migration, legal immigrants, once they secure naturalized American citizenship, can sponsor their overseas relatives for green cards.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
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