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WASHINGTON — The State Department has announced a new visa restriction tool named for an Oregon teen killed by a Saudi hit-and-run driver who allegedly fled the United States with his government's help.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday unveiled the Fallon Smart Policy, under which the State Department can restrict visas for foreign officials and their immediate family members who “intervened in a manner beyond the reasonable provision of consular services” to help their nationals accused of serious crimes escape justice in American courts.
The State Department announcement did not identify which, if any, foreign government officials are barred from entering the United States under the new policy.
Fallon Smart, a 15-year-old from Portland, was killed in a hit-and-run incident in 2016. The Oregonian newspaper reported that the man charged in her death, Saudi student Abdulrahman Noorah, fled the country with the assistance of the Saudi government two weeks before his trial.
Federal investigators believe the Saudis helped pay Noorah’s bail, issued him a new passport and facilitated his travel back to Saudi Arabia, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. The newspaper also found other examples of Saudi students who disappeared from the United States while facing criminal charges.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pushed the FBI to declassify information on Riyadh’s alleged role in helping Saudi nationals flee the United States. A redacted FBI intelligence bulletin from 2020, shared with Al-Monitor by Wyden’s office, said the Saudi government “almost certainly” helps its citizens flee the United States, "undermining the US judicial process.”
Wyden held up the nomination of Michael Ratney, the new US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, for nearly a year until he secured a commitment from the State Department that it would revoke the visas of foreign officials who help their nationals evade justice.
“The announcement of the ‘Fallon Smart Policy' enshrines in US policy the principle that there can be no room in America for foreign officials who help criminal suspects dodge the law,” Wyden said in a statement.
The State Department declined to provide identifying information on the individuals subject to the new directive, and the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not return a request for comment.
“Due to visa record confidentiality, we cannot disclose the identities of individuals who are or may be subject to this policy,” a State Department spokesperson said.
The spokesperson did not say whether Bader Al Asaker, the head of the private office for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was banned from entry under the new policy. Asaker is referred to as “Foreign Official 1” in a Justice Department indictment from 2020, which revealed charges against three men — including two former Twitter employees — accused of acting as unregistered agents of the Saudi government as part of a scheme to obtain the personal information of Saudi dissidents. According to federal prosecutors, Asaker helped one of the men under investigation, who is now wanted by US law enforcement, depart the United States before he faced trial.
The visa denial policy comes more than two years after the Biden administration unveiled the so-called Khashoggi Ban as part of President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to provide accountability for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Seventy-six unnamed Saudis were hit with visa restrictions under the Khashoggi Ban for engaging in “serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities” on behalf of a foreign government.
Blinken described the Khashoggi Ban as a powerful signal to those who harass dissidents and journalists around the world. Critics said keeping the individuals’ names private would undercut the ban’s deterrent effect.
The new visa penalties arrive two weeks after Blinken visited Saudi Arabia, where he met with MBS and other Saudi officials in what was widely seen as an effort to repair the relations strained by differences over human rights, the supply of oil and the kingdom’s relationship with China.
