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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: DHS admits: At least half-million foreign visitors overstayed visas in 2015 and feds not looking for them DHS admits: At least half-million foreign visitors overstayed visas in 2015 and feds not looking for them Fri, Jan 22th Nearly 20 years after it was first requested by Congress, the Department of Homeland Security finally released an official report on the number of foreign visitors who overstayed their visa. Congress first asked for the report in 1997, but the federal government hadn't responded until this week. The report showed that more than 500,000 foreign visitors who entered the country in 2015 on either a business or tourist visa failed to leave the country before the visa expired. That's more than half-a-million foreign visitors who overstayed in just one year. The report gave no indication as to how many foreign visitors were still in the country after overstaying their visas from years before 2015. The DHS' report preceded an oversight hearing held by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) who serves as Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest. "Visa expiration dates have become optional," Sen. Sessions said. "The Administration does not believe that violating the terms of your visa should result in deportation. What we are witnessing is tantamount to an open border. Millions are free to come on temporary visas and no one is required to leave." During the hearing, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) asked the Assistant Director of ICE's National Security Investigations Division Craig Healy if the agency pursued suspected visa overstayers as part of its interior enforcement actions. Visa overstays is one of the groups of illegal aliens that receives little sympathy or leniency in public opinion polls. Healy said that only 3,000 visa overstays are currently under investigation. That number covers the entire illegal-alien population going back 30 years. Most researchers agree that roughly 40% of the illegal-alien population came to the U.S. legally and overstayed their visa, meaning an estimated 4-5 million illegal aliens are visa overstayers. That means ICE is currently investigating less than one-tenth of 1% of all visa overstays. You can watch the exchange between Perdue and Healy here. Sen. Sessions spoke to the importance of investigating visa overstays by referencing Civil Rights icon and Chairwoman of the last bipartisan immigration commission Barbara Jordan. "As the late Barbara Jordan, Chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, said, 'Deportation is crucial. Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.'" The DHS report only covered a small fraction of the number of nonimmigrant visas issued each year. By examining only business and tourist visas, DHS failed to provide visa overstay data for student visas, guest-worker visas, intracompany transfers (L1), and exchange visitors just to name a few. In 2013, the most recent year public data is available, the federal government issued more than 173 million nonimmigrant visas. The business and tourist visa categories included in the DHS report only accounted for about 25% of those visas. While a large number of the foreign visitors who overstayed their visa came from Mexico and Canada, more than 5,000 came from countries that sponsor terrorism, and tens of thousands more came from countries across the ocean, making it less likely that they'll return home. In advance of Wednesday's hearing, NumbersUSA's Roy Beck had an op-ed published in the Capitol Hill publication The Hill. You can read excerpts from his op-ed with a link to the full article here. Roy highlighted the legislative history of a biometric entry/exit system that would make it much easier for the Department of Homeland Security to identify and remove visa overstays. "An automated entry-and-exit screening system for foreign nationals entering and departing from the United States was first required by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996. It is not an exaggeration to say that had such a system been in place, the 9/11 attacks may have been prevented. The Government Accountability Office, the Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Homeland Security have all recognized the imperative of having biometric exit screening in place. "And yet, three successive administrations have failed to comply with the law, particularly the exit-tracking part of it." There is no bill in Congress that would solely require the completion of the biometric entry/exit system, but Rep. Ted Poe's (R-Texas) SMART Border Act, H.R.300, would require implementation within two years among many other things. There are new faxes on your Action Board telling your three Members of Congress about DHS' findings and urging them to push for completion and implementation of a biometric entry/exit system. Poster Comment: When I lived in Illinois, I knew this Swedish girl that lived in the north suburbs of Chicago. She was a Nanny. She overstayed her visa. They caught her and sent her back to Sweden. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
If only she'd known she could have painted her face brown and come back in across the Rio Grande!
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