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Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas is calling on the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, to reassess visa applications processed under the Biden administration. This request targets legal immigrants, following revelations from the Justice Department that a Gaza citizen was granted a U.S. visa despite alleged connections to a Hamas terrorist attack on Israel in October 2023.
“I strongly encourage the DHS to audit all visas issued to individuals from high-risk nations since 2021, with a focus on uncovering any affiliations with Hamas or other recognized terrorist organizations,” Senator Cotton stated in a letter to Secretary Noem this week.
This appeal follows the arrest of 33-year-old Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, a legal immigrant from Gaza, by the Department of Justice in Lafayette, Louisiana. He is accused of having played a role in the Hamas-led terrorist assault on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The criminal complaint against Al-Muhtadi identifies him as an operative within the National Resistance Brigades, the military division of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which took part in the October 7th attack.
Federal prosecutors assert that Al-Muhtadi was informed of the Hamas strike that morning. He reportedly armed himself and crossed into Israel, intending to assist in the terrorist activities.
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.
By June 2024, less than a year after the attack, Al-Muhtadi had submitted an immigrant visa application to reside in the United States. During an August 2024 interview with a U.S. consulate official in Cairo, Egypt, he allegedly denied any involvement with Hamas or the National Resistance Brigades.
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.
