Thread: 40 Percent in US Illegally Overstayed Their Visas

Monday, 08 Apr 2013 12:14 PM
By Melanie Batley
newsmax.com

About 40 percent of illegal immigrants in the United States have overstayed their tourist, education, or work visas, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The government estimates that there are around four-to-five million so-called overstayers out of the more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. today. While little is known about their whereabouts, studies indicate they tend to be better educated and more fluent in English than people who cross the nation's border illegally, the Journal reported Monday.

Overstayers on average have 13.2 years of education compared with 9.4 years for those who crossed the border illegally, according to a study from the Public Policy Institute of California that was cited by the Journal.

The bipartisan Senate group working on a comprehensive immigration reform plan has been wrestling with how to provide a pathway to citizenship for the different types of illegal immigrants and workers, regardless of whether they came here on a visa or simply walked across the border. Many of those who arrived with visas in hand could likely end up with a legal job if reform legislation includes an expansion of the H-1B visa program, which allows highly-skilled workers into the U.S. for jobs that often can't readily be filled by U.S. workers.

"Visa overstayers would benefit more from a legalization program," Madeleine Sumption, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, told the Journal. "They have higher levels of skills but are being held back by their legal status."

But Americans in general may be less sympathetic to the plight of overstayers than lawmakers trying to work out a legal status for them. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 55 percent of likely voters would like to see people who overstayed their visas sent home.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ill...4/08/id/498341

by William Bigelow 8 Apr 2013, 4:41 PM PDT
breitbart.com



Roughly 40% of the 11 million undocumented workers in the United States are foreigners who came legally mostly through visas but have overstayed the length of the visas or overstayed their legal residence here, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. These immigrants did not cross the U.S. border with stealth but rather obeyed the laws when they arrived. The scant hard evidence about this group indicates that they are better educated than non-visa illegal immigrants, and often speak English with greater fluency. They also tend to emigrate from Europe, Asia and Africa, rather than Central and South America. In many cases, they used tourist visas to enter the U.S.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.), who is working on the Senate immigration bill, “Whenever I use that statistic, people seem completely surprised. They assume that, yeah, some people overstay—but 40% of the illegal population here?" Flake commented that a sizable group of the overstayers exceeded the time limit on H-1B visas, which apply to highly skilled workers

According to a study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, of the 8,500 immigrants in 2003 who obtained permanent legal status, there was an average of 13.2 years of education, 50% more than the 9.4 years for illegal immigrants from the same time; 55% of the immigrants who gained permanent status spoke English well or very well, while only 39% of the illegal immigrants could do that well.

A Rasmussen Reports survey revealed Americans are not likely to distinguish between the overstayers and the illegal immigrants; 55% said the overstayers should be sent home.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...overstay-visas

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