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Time to get serious about those who overstay visas
In 1996, Congress decided that it needed a way to track people who overstay their visas a huge and understated part of the nation's illegal immigration problem. So it authorized a program to verify that visa holders who arrived in the country eventually left it. Five years later, on 9/11, terrorists tragically confirmed that program's failure by flying hijacked airplanes into buildings. Two of the 19 hijackers had overstayed visas. In the years that followed, the newly created Department of Homeland Security initiated what it called the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program (or US-VISIT for short) with much fanfare.But here we are in 2009, still without an effective entry-and-exit monitoring program. US-VISIT has enhanced the entry process, with a series of biometric authentications matching the person issued a visa abroad with the person standing at a passport counter. But when that person leaves the country, no such process takes place. After studying the issue, and creating a few pilot programs, the Bush administration decided essentially to punt. Too much cost, too little benefit, it reasoned. The Obama administration is expected to announce its own policies in coming weeks. Don't expect much this time, either. The forces arrayed against the idea budget pressures, the inevitable inconvenience to travelers, difficulties with airport design promote procrastination. That is a problem, both for national security and for controlling immigration. It serves as a kind of advertisement to people the world over that if they can just get into the country they can stay as long as they want, outside the law, without much hassle. Either our government cares about its laws or it doesn't. Despite the costs, following through with this program is vital to sending a message that the U.S. is resolute in policing its borders, appropriately monitoring its visitors and protecting its people. For decades, the nation's immigration laws were simply not enforced. Now there's ample pressure to tighten up, but it is overwhelmingly directed at Hispanics crossing the southern border. If one focuses on the numbers, not the language and complexion of the illegal immigrants, that shouldn't be the case. Overstayers are believed to make up about a third of the total population of illegal immigrants, which is thought to be somewhere around 12 million. To be sure, the issues delaying this program are daunting. Thousands of people would have to be hired. And many airports would have to be modified to create departure areas with passport counters. Neither the Transportation Security Administration nor the airline industry wants to be saddled with running the program. The travel industry is suspicious that government could do it without creating more hassles for legitimate tourists and business travelers. And some in the national security community shrug off the issue, saying they have alternative, though inferior, tracking methods such as airline passenger manifests and returned port-of-entry forms. These are all legitimate, pragmatic concerns that explain why this program has been so slow to get off the ground. But they should not be allowed to undermine the principle that the law should have meaning. Posted by: ryuge 2009-09-04 |
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