Thread: U.S. gives expired visas little scrutiny

May 10, 2010 |
.U.S. gives expired visas little scrutiny
93 comments
by Daniel González - May. 10, 2010 12:00 AM

Not every illegal immigrant in the United States snuck across the border. A very large number, perhaps as many as 5.5 million, entered legally with visas and then never left.

But unlike the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border every year, very few visa violators are ever caught.


The Border Patrol's Tucson sector, the busiest in the nation, logged 112,488 apprehensions last fiscal year. In comparison, federal agents in Arizona tracked down and arrested 27 people who had overstayed their visas.

Visa violators represent nearly half of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. But they have been largely ignored amid a national clamor to secure the border, fueled in part by Arizona's tough new immigration law, the killing of a southern Arizona rancher and worries that cartel violence in Mexico could spill into this country, analysts and experts say.

"It's not that we have too much emphasis on the border. We still need enforcement on the border. The problem is not enough attention to the other issue," said Michael W. Cutler, a former senior agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which became Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In the past five years, the number of Border Patrol agents stationed along the U.S.-Mexico line has doubled, to more than 20,000 people. That's the highest level of staffing in the Border Patrol's 85-year history. And Arizona politicians including Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, Republican Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, and Democratic Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Ann Kirkpatrick have called for deploying the National Guard to the border, too.

There has been no corresponding call to increase the search for those who overstay visas.

In 2003, Immigration and Customs Enforcement created a special unit to track down visa violators. Funding grew from $6.7 million the first year to $68.3 million in fiscal year 2009, according to testimony in March by Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for ICE John Morton to the House Homeland Security Committee.Investigators analyze records of hundreds of thousands of potential violators based on data from various government databases that keep track of students, tourists and other people who enter the U.S. On average, the 272 investigators assigned to the unit arrest 1,400 visa violators a year, Morton said. ICE officials said the number of overstayers arrested each year has steadily risen, though they could not provide details.

Lon Weigand, assistant special agent in charge of ICE investigations in Phoenix, said most of the 27 visa violators in Arizona last year had overstayed tourist visas. ICE could not say whether that was up or down from previous years.


Border emphasis

A USA Today/Gallup poll released May 4 showed that four in 10 Americans think it is extremely important for the government to do more this year to control U.S. borders.

McCain, who sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said illegal immigrants who overstay their visas are a "serious problem." But "certainly not along the lines of what is happening on our border, though," McCain said, mentioning the killing of rancher Robert Krentz and the April 30 wounding of a Pinal County sheriff's deputy. Drug smugglers are suspected in both incidents. There also are fears that the increasing cartel violence in Mexico, where tens of thousands have been killed since the 2006 war on drugs began, could spill over the border.

"We've got drug smuggling. We've got murder. We've got abuse of human rights and human smugglers. We've got heavily armed and equipped organizations that are responsible for the deaths of 22,000 Mexican citizens," McCain said.

Cutler, the former immigration agent, likened the attention heaped on border security to a wing on an airplane. "Without the wing, the plane won't fly. But the wing alone does not constitute an airplane," he said.

Kirkpatrick, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the attention to the border is justified. "The risk of violence spilling into Arizona is clearly there. I am not going to wait for that risk to become a reality or for that problem to come to us," she said.

But she acknowledged that more attention needs to be paid to visa violators, especially keeping better track of people who don't leave after their visas expire. In general, people from other countries must obtain a visa to come to the United States as a student, tourist or businessperson. They are required to fill out an I-94 form when they arrive and turn it in when they leave. People from 36 "visa waiver" countries, including Britain, Spain and Ireland, are not required to obtain a visa if they plan to stay for less than 90 days for tourist or business purposes.

"The ease in which people can overstay their visas is a significant security threat," Kirkpatrick said.


Less focus on interior

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 40 to 50 percent of the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants entered the country legally. As of May 2006, the most current data available, 4 million to 5.5 million people had entered the U.S. legally and then remained after their visas had expired. An additional 250,000 to 500,000 people entered legally with temporary border-crossing cards and then stayed.

"Building fences and stopping people from sneaking into the country only goes part way," said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at the center who studies the undocumented population. Passel said 35 million people come to the U.S. with visas every year for extended stays. On top of that, there are millions of people who cross through land ports each year for short visits, making it difficult to keep track of everyone who enters and leaves.

"We allow this because it is good for the country. We want tourists to come here. We want students to come," Passel said. "But even if 99 percent turn around and leave," a significant number remain.

Gerald Burridge 58, an illegal immigrant from Britain, entered the U.S. on a three-year visitor's visa in 2003 and stayed after it expired. Interviewed at the ICE facility on Central Avenue in Phoenix, Burridge said he was arrested for failing to pay a drug-related fine and now is facing deportation.

Jena McNeill, a policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said that because most people overstay their visas to work illegally in the U.S., tracking those who enter and leave does little to solve the problem without also beefing up work-site enforcement.

"There are things we need to do at the border, but we need to get serious about interior enforcement," McNeill said.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... rstay.html

This is a part of this horrendous problem that makes me really sick. I'm guessing the majority of the 5.5 million are also from Mexico. Only 27 visa overstayers caught in Arizona? Ridiculous! The new Arizona law should help find more of these cheaters.

U.S. Ignores Immigrants With Expired Visas


Last Updated: Mon, 05/10/2010 - 2:44pm

While securing the border remains the focus of national attention, the government continues ignoring millions of illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. legally but never left when their visas expired like several of the 9/11 terrorists.

Nearly half of the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants fall into this category yet few are ever caught because it’s simply not a priority for the government, according to an Arizona newspaper report that provides alarming statistics on the matter. Border Patrol presence along the U.S.-Mexico border has doubled in the last five years, but there has been no effort to increase the search for illegal aliens who overstay their visas.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are apprehended at the border every year while only a few dozen visa violators are ever caught. A case in point listed in the story; the Border Patrol's Tucson Arizona sector logged 112,488 apprehensions last fiscal year while federal agents in Arizona tracked down and arrested only 27 people who had overstayed their visas.

The Homeland Security agency in charge of tracking down foreigners who overstay visas is Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is also responsible for targeting illegal workers and ensuring every alien who has been ordered removed departs the U.S. immediately. A few years ago ICE created a special unit dedicated to tracking foreigners who overstay visas. Last fiscal year the unit got nearly $70 million in federal funding to fulfill the task. About 272 investigators arrest an average of 1,400 violators a year, according to Homeland Security officials cited in the article.

At that rate the U.S. won’t ever put a dent in the number of violators, which is estimated to be between 4 and 5.5 million. This is nothing new. A few years ago a nonprofit organization dedicated to Hispanic issues released a report documenting that nearly half of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. entered through an airport or border crossing with legal visas that allowed them to visit or reside in the country for a limited time.

Yet the crucial issue of foreigners who enter the U.S. through ports of entry and subsequently overstay or otherwise violate the terms of admission, continues to be neglected if not totally overlooked, according to some immigration officials. This is abominable considering that several of the Middle Eastern terrorists who carried out the 2001 attacks lived in the U.S. with expired visas.

www.judicialwatch.org

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-5246--0-0.html

Related. ALIPAC mentioned. Please delete if this is a dup.
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azcapitoltimes.com
Large share of illegal immigrants entered on visas, not across border
By Griselda Nevarez, Cronkite News Service
Published: May 10, 2010 at 10:38 am

While studying in his native Mexico to become an architect, Jose used a tourist visa to enter the U.S. to buy equipment for his father’s industrial maintenance business.

The visa expired in 2004, but Jose remains in Phoenix, remodeling houses making as much in a week here as he would in a month as an architect back home. He said remaining illegally was an easy decision after he had his first child with a woman in the U.S.

“I felt that I had no choice but to stay and support my family,â€

This says it all in my humble opinion.

McCain, who sits

Originally Posted by Waiter

This says it all in my humble opinion.

McCain, who sits

I'd add an h.