U.S. Takes “Few Enforcement Actions” on Visa Overstays Deemed High Risk to National Security

As if it weren’t bad enough that the U.S. government has long compromised national security by losing track of foreigners—like several of the 9/11 terrorists—who overstay their visa, in many cases it fails to take enforcement actions on solid leads of those who may pose a threat to the country. This is a huge problem because every year tens of millions of foreign nationals receive nonimmigrant visas to enter the U.S. for tourism, business or study and hundreds of thousands stay beyond their authorized period of admission annually, violating the terms of the visa which the feds categorize as overstays. The State Department issues the visas, and a new federal probe reveals that from fiscal year 2021 to 2024, the agency distributed more than 31 million. Incredibly, under the Biden administration’s lax rules over 12 million were granted without required vetting of in-person interviews or fingerprint collection, putting the country at risk by approving certain visa holders who represent national security or safety threats.

Adding insult to injury, federal authorities took few enforcement actions even when they had “targeted leads” concerning foreigners who overstayed their visa, according to the recently published investigation conducted by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General. “As a result, foreign nationals who potentially posed threats to the United States remained at large despite their illegal status,” the watchdog confirms. The lapse is like a punch in the gut for the American public two and a half decades after Islamic terrorists exploited this inefficient system for tracking foreigners who overstay visas to remain in the country. It allowed the 9/11 hijackers to live in the U.S., plan, and conduct the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, killing nearly 3,000 people. After the attacks Congress created a system to track the entry and exit of foreign nationals by using electronically scanned fingerprints and photographs. It was called the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (US VISIT), and it was seriously flawed even though the government invested around a billion dollars over several years to get it going. It never worked properly, however.

Now we find out that even when visa overstays are credibly identified as a possible threat to the nation, federal authorities do not act. As unbelievable as this may seem, the recently published audit reveals that in the four fiscal years examined Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) received over 3 million overstay leads of which it categorized 104,049 as potential national security and public safety concerns. From there, the Homeland Security agency responsible for preventing terrorism, immigration enforcement and combating transnational crime deemed only 21,885 worth investigating, resulting in just 496 probes and the arrest of a meager eight foreign nationals who remained in the country after their permission to stay expired. Even the highest priority visa overstay lead investigations representing only the maximum risk led to few arrests, DHS investigators found. During the four years analyzed Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified 1,769 so-called “Priority 1” leads and conducted 84 probes that resulted in just two arrests. One is a Honduran with an expired B-2 tourism visa charged with rape, assault, and sexual offense in Maryland and the other a Chilean charged with credit card fraud, burglary, theft, and criminal mischief in Florida.

The number of foreigners who overstay their visa and remain unmonitored inside the country has grown significantly in the quarter century since Al Qaeda operatives executed the deadliest terrorist attack in American history. Years ago, the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that nearly half of the nation’s illegal aliens entered the U.S. legally and overstayed their visa undetected. Other federal investigations have revealed that the U.S. has failed to remove millions with expired visas, including DHS losing track of hundreds of dangerous foreigners that “could pose a national security or public safety concerns.” Every year the government fails to catch hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who overstay their visa. In fiscal year 2015 it was more than half a million, including thousands from terrorist nations like Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. A few years later the number of overstays increased to 702,000. Among them was a Portuguese man charged in the gruesome kidnap and murder of a young woman whose body was found bound in a suitcase on a Connecticut street. In fiscal year 2022 DHS confirmed a record-breaking 853,955 visa overstays.

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