VISA Overstays. Where they're from
A half million people overstayed their welcome in the U.S. last year. Here’s where they’re from.
By Niraj Chokshi January 22 at 7:30 AM
You know how it goes: A friend comes to visit, you catch up, hang out and have fun. Then, it’s time to leave. The day of departure comes and goes, but he’s still there — a guest pushing the limits.
It’s a problem the United States knows all too well. Of the 45 million people who visited the country last year, more than a half million of them overstayed their welcome, according to a new Department of Homeland Security report. The figure was greater than the number of people apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents over the same period.
For the most part, visitors during the 2015 fiscal year followed the rules: 98.8 percent came and left within the allowed window.
But 527,000 visitors stayed on, with nearly 483,000 suspected to still be in the country by the time the fiscal year ended, in September. That number likely fell to 416,500 by the beginning of 2016, but that’s still more than 337,000 people picked up at the borders last year.
The government separates those visitors who violate the terms of their admission to the United States into two groups: Those who flouted the rules and left by the end of the 2015 fiscal year and those who ignored the rules and were still here at year’s end.
Canada was the top source for both groups: An estimated 6,900 Canadians came and went (but not before overstaying their welcome), while 93,000 Canadians were still in the country illegally by the end of 2015. Mexico ranked second on both lists.
Among the countries whose residents remained in the country illegally by the end of 2015, Brazil ranked third, followed by Germany and then Italy.
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(Niraj Chokshi)
China ranked third among countries that sent visitors who violated the terms of their admission but left by the end of the year.
The United Kingdom followed, ahead of Spain.
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(Niraj Chokshi)
Those absolute totals only tell part of the story, however; many of those countries also happen to be among the largest sources of visitors to the United States overall.
Relatively speaking, visitors from two different sets of countries were most likely to disobey the rules: Visitors from Africa and Asia were more likely than others to have visited and still been in the United States illegally by the end of 2015.
Djibouti topped the list. Of the nearly 350 people from the African nation who visited the United States and were expected to leave, roughly one in four was still here by the end of 2015.
The small Asian nation of Bhutan was next, followed by Burkina Faso, Laos and Eritrea. While the latter three sent over thousands of visitors, Djibouti and Bhutan each sent only several hundred.
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(Niraj Chokshi)
As a share of overall visitors, Eritreans were more likely than those from any other country to leave in violation of the rules. Nearly 3 percent of the more than 2,300 Eritreans expected to leave the country last year did so, but only after violating the terms they agreed to when they arrived.
In fact, Africa was a major source of such violators. Behind Eritrea, the countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Chad were the next largest sources of visitors who disregarded the rules as they came and went.
The Marshall Islands ranked fifth, but that’s because just two of its residents hadn’t left the United States by the end of 2015.
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(Niraj Chokshi)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...e-theyre-from/
