Thread: U.S. Struggles to Nab Visitors Who Overstay

February 18, 2013, 8:24 p.m. ET

U.S. Struggles to Nab Visitors Who Overstay

By LAURA MECKLER

WASHINGTON—A long-standing problem in immigration enforcement—identifying foreigners who fail to go home when their visas expire—is emerging as a key question as senators and President Barack Obama chart an overhaul of immigration law.

The Senate is discussing an overhaul that would require the government to track foreigners who overstay their visas. The problem is the U.S. currently doesn't have a reliable system for doing this.



A group of Democratic and Republican senators say that a better visa-tracking system should be in place and that there should be improved U.S. border security before any of the estimated 11 million people now in the U.S. illegally can apply for citizenship under proposed new laws. Mr. Obama wants no such precondition before illegal foreigners can apply for citizenship.

Talk of illegal immigration often conjures images of people sneaking across the U.S. border from Mexico, but an estimated 40% or more of those now illegally in the U.S. entered with a valid visa.

Congress moved to tighten the system after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Foreigners now get their fingerprints taken when they enter the country. A similar biometric system to track exits also was mandated. But it proved costly and tricky to set up, and it wasn't put in place. Among other things, airports have no obvious place to do the checks.

Now, as the Senate tackles immigration overhaul, the visa-overstay challenge is gaining new attention. "We need a visa-tracking system,'' Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), a member of the bipartisan group, told talk show host Rush Limbaugh. "We don't track people when they leave. We only track them when they come in." He added that he wouldn't support a bill unless "enforcement mechanisms are in place."

The Senate group aims to introduce a bill by March and hopes to begin moving it through the legislative process this spring. President Obama has said he would propose his own immigration legislation if progress stalls, though White House officials say they are pleased with the pace so far.

Mr. Obama's potential legislation would allow all people in the country illegally to qualify for a "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" visa right away if they passed a criminal-background check, submitted biometric information and paid fees, according to a person familiar with the bill.

After eight years, people with provisional status could qualify for a green card—legal permanent residence—if they learned English and U.S. history and paid back taxes, under Mr. Obama's approach. That would allow them to apply for citizenship after a further five years. The green cards would be available earlier if the government clears the backlog of people waiting legally before eight years pass.

Details of the president's draft legislation were reported earlier by USA Today.
Nobody is sure how many people are in the U.S. on expired visas. The most commonly cited figures equate to some four million to five million people. But that is based on a 2006 study by the Pew Hispanic Center, which relied on a formula that was created using 1990 data.

In 2011, there were 159 million nonimmigrant visits to the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security. More than three-quarters were for pleasure. But millions also involved business travelers, temporary workers and students.

A handful of other countries have established systems for monitoring visa overstays, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that studies immigration issues.

The institute singles out Australia as having a particularly effective system. Information is collected and electronically recorded for all visitors entering Australia, and then checked again on the spot as people depart. People who have overstayed their visas are flagged for a secondary inspection upon departure. The institute also points to Japan, which implemented an entry-exit system in 2007 that includes fingerprinting visitors.

The Senate legislation under discussion wouldn't create any additional enforcement program to track down people who overstayed visas, Senate aides in both parties said. Still, they said it is important to understand the scope of the problem, and that tougher employment-verification systems contemplated by the legislation would deter future visitors from overstaying their visas.

The Department of Homeland Security says it is on its way to creating a tracking system, though it isn't clear if it will satisfy the senators working on immigration overhaul.

The department is no longer focused on implementing a biometric system, one relying on fingerprints or other unique personal markers, to make sure someone leaving the country is the same person who entered on a particular visa. Instead, the department has begun comparing lists of people with expired visas with lists of foreigners who depart through airports and seaports.

However, the department has no current way of tracking foreigners who leave by land. And officials said the department still can't say how many people are in the country on an expired visa.

Another problem is that some of the people who haven't left the country have found legal means of staying—such as getting employment or student visas, or gaining refugee status. Officials said they are working to integrate all these databases now.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that her department should be able to report the rate of visa overstays by the end of the year.

A biometric system that included measures like fingerprints, she said, would be "extraordinarily expensive."

The department tested three possible biometric checkpoints in pilot programs, and all had problems. The first checked travelers when they got their boarding passes.

But airlines balked at that additional responsibility, and officials concluded it would be easy for travelers to "check out" at the counter and then simply leave the airport.

A second option was processing people at the security checkpoint. But that diverted officers' attention from their prime responsibilities, and slowed the lines, officials said. Plus, travelers could still leave the airport after going through security.

The final option was to do the checks in or near the jetways to capture people just before boarding.

But it was difficult to find space at the gates, a senior homeland security official said, and airlines again balked at any additional responsibilities, arguing that this is a government function.

Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323764804578312330678211000.html

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http://www.alipac.us/f12/forty-perce...-visas-273086/

The idea that we can't check people leaving the country at the gate is ridiculous. Since when an airline or an industry can stop the government from requiring security for the nation? We were all required to extra checking at the gates after 9/11.

In addition when we find out that so and so canceled his ticket or was a no show without rebooking their flight, what the heck are we going to do about it? Are we going to amnesty them too in 10 years? if we didn't, wouldn't that be discrimination?

Once they get here legally if they don't leave where do you look for them. Just because they said they were going to vacation in some state, or several states, doesn't mean they are still there. It's a big country and they can go anywhere, and buy a real nice ID to match their new name.

When you visit the UK, they collect your passport at the hotel. You could confirm their reservations or who they will be visiting. You can collect their credit card numbers. You can stop them from buying car tags and getting driver's licenses.

You can arrest the home owner who they were to visit. You can alert authorities if they cancel or rebook their flight home.

Thats about it I suppose. I don't know what you could take or withhold from them to make sure they leave. Maybe if their family was arrested in their home country, they would leave. The world is so corrupt now and people are so dishonest now, its getting very difficult for people who follow the law. There are a lot of dishonest employers in this country.

Originally Posted by jd421

When you visit the UK, they collect your passport at the hotel. You could confirm their reservations or who they will be visiting.

When they leave the hotel where they are staying they can get in a cab and go anywhere, airport, bus station, etc. and head for parts unknown. They don't need their old passport, they aren't going back home. Their new fake ID let's them be who ever they want to be.

You can collect their credit card numbers. You can stop them from buying car tags and getting driver's licenses.

All they have to do is stop using their credit card from back home and you have lost the ability to track them.
Illegal aliens already can't get a license in most states. That's why they get a fake ID and become someone else.

You can arrest the home owner who they were to visit. You can alert authorities if they cancel or rebook their flight home.

If they are here on a tourist visa, staying in a hotel, and say they are going to Disneyland who do you arrest when they disappear?
If they are here on a student visa and disappear from the school who gets arrested?
If they cancel their flight home you have no idea where in the country they are, so where do you look for them?

Thats about it I suppose. I don't know what you could take or withhold from them to make sure they leave. Maybe if their family was arrested in their home country, they would leave.

I don't think you can arrest people back home for something a family member does in another country. Would it be legal for the police to arrest you for something one of your relatives did.

This goes for "Guest Workers" too. Once you let them in you loose control of them.
They can cross the border and say they are headed to work on a farm in New York and get on a bus for there. Get off at any stop and go where ever they want.

They would need a lot of cash to do those things. Perhaps if overstaying a visa was a serious mandatory jail sentence, it would spread the word.

I don't have any ideas, do you?

Originally Posted by jd421

. . . I don't have any ideas, do you?

The only way to keep them from overstaying their visa is to no let them come here in the first place. (Which would be a big hit to our tourist industry and cost a lot of jobs.)

That's not going to happen and as such is not a suggestion of a solution.

Napolitano stated that they will not be able to use biometrics to check them in and out. She said it was too expensive but never mentioned how much it is. I think she mentioned biographic markers? Anybody remember from the Senate hearing?

The only thing else I could think of is tag them. Yup that's right. Put a GPS on their wrist. Any government employee or tourist who loses a GPS, goes to jail. Sounds pretty crude. I know they have been thinking about it for years, so they probably have something that will not be susceptible to so much fraud.

I can't think of anything else at the moment.

Originally Posted by jd421

That's not going to happen . . .

I know it's not going to happen, but it's the only way to prevent overstays.
And they aren't going to put a GPS on everyone entering the country either,
so that isn't really a solution either.
If they cut off the GPS you still have the original problem,
"It's a big country so where do you look for them?"
You have to find them before you can put them in jail or deport them.
There are MILLIONS of illegal aliens roaming around the country right now and no one is putting them in jail or deporting them even when they come into contact with law enforcement.
It's almost impossible to get them deported now.