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Immigration

John Bolton: Biden 'bending' to Iran by accepting migrants with terrorist ties

Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said he does not believe the Biden administration is "actually competent enough" to administer the new immigration rule.

July 5, 2022 11:18pm

Updated: July 6, 2022 11:59am

National security experts are warning that President Joe Biden's decision to allow some terrorist-affiliated migrants into the United States is part of an effort to reenter the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, even though the State Department claims the move was meant to help Afghans.

"I think it's a disastrous decision," former National Security Advisor John Bolton told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday. "I attribute it largely to the administration's continuing efforts to get back into the 2015 Iran nuclear deal."

The State and Homeland Security departments instituted a new immigration rule last week to grant U.S. "immigration benefits" to migrants who provided "insignificant" or "limited material support" to  U.S.-designated terrorist organizations.

A State Department spokesperson told Just the News that the "action will allow the U.S. government to meet the protection needs of qualifying Afghans who do not pose a national security or public safety risk."

The Taliban is not a U.S.-designated terror organization, so the rule change does not apply to Afghan nationals who assisted the Taliban, the current rulers of Afghanistan.

"The rule that they have offered is so broad that it actually applies to many more individuals other than just Afghans," former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told "Just the News, Not Noise" on Tuesday.

Wolf said he does not believe the Biden administration is "actually competent enough" to administer the new law "in a way that is actually good for Americans."

The Trump administration designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, and while it appears Biden will not remove the group's terrorist designation, Bolton said the change in immigration policy shows the White House is "trying to mitigate the effect of that designation."

"It's another sign of bending the knee to the Ayatollah in Iran," he said. "And it's a signal to terrorists all around the world that the U.S. just doesn't have staying power."

After Iran stopped complying with the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency early last month, Biden's already questionable prospects of restoring the JCPOA grew even dimmer.

Bolton said that Biden's attempts to reenter the deal "severely impaired America's relations with all of our friends in the Middle East and Israel," where Iran poses the "principal threat to peace and security."

Biden plans on visiting the region next week, when he will discuss security, including threats from Iran.