The Daily Wire reports that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has just introduced a piece of legislation that would prevent Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other Iranians from entering the United States.
This comes just ahead of the upcoming opening session of the 77th United Nations General Assembly, which will be held in New York City. Cruz wants to make sure that Raisi will not be able to get into the United States to attend the event.
Cruz’s bill
It is called the SEVER Act, which stands for the Stregnthetning Entry Visa Enforcement and Restrictions Act of 2022. The bill can be read in its entirety here.
“The SEVER Act will deny entry to Raisi and the few dozen individuals who are hand-picked by the Ayatollah to repress the Iranian people and pose threats to American national security, to ensure they cannot get into the United States,” Cruz explained, adding, “it is well within the rights of the United States to deny them entry, and we absolutely should.”
Cruz also suggested that a piece of legislation like the SEVER Act would not be necessary if President Joe Biden was properly enforcing existing laws.
“Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi would already be excluded from entering the United States for the U.N. General Assembly if President Biden and his administration were enforcing existing statutes in good faith,” Cruz argued.
He further noted:
Raisi has a record of terrorist activities, including his advocacy for the assassination of President Trump and other U.S. officials. He is also listed by the State Department as ineligible for entering the United States because of mass atrocities he committed. Nevertheless, the Biden administration seems set on circumventing these restrictions.
Background
Cruz’s legislation is not the only recent attempt to stop Raisi and other Iranians from entering the U.S. A bipartisan group of U.S. House members has also been urging the Biden administration to deny the Iranians entry visas.
It is not exactly clear how much Congressional support this push has.
Normally, it would be a no-brainer. Fox News reports that “two previous administrations in the last 10 years have denied entry visas to Iranian regime officials: in 2014, Iran’s UN Ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi, and in 2020, foreign minister Javad Zarif.”
This time is different, though, and this is because the Biden administration is trying to get both Iran and the United States back into the controversial Iranian Nuclear Deal. The Biden administration is reported to be negotiating the final details of a renewed version of the deal, which was originally a product of the Obama administration.
Why the Biden administration is so desperate to cozy up to Iran is something that many Americans continue to ask.