Just days after another U.S. city was attacked by a radical Islamic terrorist, as the Obama administration was attempting to divert attention to its failure to prevent the massacre by pursing gun control legislation, a House subcommittee has learned that 527,127 foreign nationals who were supposed to leave in 2015 didn’t.
Graphic courtesy citizenservices.com.
Nonimmigrants, who were lawfully admitted to the country for an authorized period, but stayed beyond his or her lawful admission period are known as “visa overstayers.” Sadly, we don’t know where most of them are living. Last year, less than 3,000 were deported, as our “open borders” administration seems to be sending the message – just get into the country, and you will be allowed to stay.
I thought you might be interested in how the Obama “big government” process is failing us in the area of overstays.
Following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Congress passed the Border Security Act of 2002, mandating the implementation of a computerized, matching entry-exit database. In 2011, with that implementation still in limbo, the Government Accounting Office meekly reported to the Senate that given the “magnitude of the estimated overstay population, it is particularly important that DHS overstay enforcement programs utilize leading program management practices to plan and execute overstay programs and effectively assess program results so that corrective actions can be taken if necessary.” That’s it?
Incidentally, five of the World Trade Center terrorists were “overstayers.”
A year later, the State Department – the first government agency to have contact with foreign nationals wishing to visit the U.S. – reported to the House that “the department is dedicated to the protection of our borders and has no higher priority than the safety of our fellow citizens. We are committed, along with our partner agencies, to a layered approach to border security that will enable the U.S. government to track and review eligibility and status of foreign visitors from their visa applications throughout their travel, sojourn in, and departure from, the United States.”
Still, all talk, no action.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform reported in 2013 that “There is no current comprehensive system to assure that the immigration authorities know whether persons who have been admitted as nonimmigrants remain in the country legally.”
What are the chances that one of the 527,127 “visa overstayers” is planning another San Bernardino, Orlando or worse?
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