President Donald Trump signed a national security memorandum on Tuesday, to establish a new vetting center in the hope of improving the current process of screening new visitors and immigrants wanting to come to the US.
In the memorandum, the President declares that immigration and border security are vital to ensuring the security, prosperity, and safety of the US and that he is, therefore, directing the creation of a new National Vetting Center. The task of the center will be to coordinate the governance and management of the enterprise of national vetting. A report, released on Monday by CNN, claims that the new directive does not call for extra funding or establish new authorities.
The center is likely to be finished in the next six months, with its development to be a joint effort between the director of national intelligence, the attorney general, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), whose job will be to identify anyone who is a threat to border security, public safety, homeland security, or national security, the statement says.
Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said that tighter screening and tougher vetting have already been put in place by DHS and that the new center will support that work and the efforts of the intelligence community to ensure that dangerous individuals are not permitted to enter the country. The directive also explains how the immigration vetting process will be streamlined for some immigrants already living in the US.