By Wes Walker,
You’d think that a problem flagged as a key contributing factor to 9/11 would be a legislative priority for Congress. But that would be giving them too much credit.
Since that attack, we’ve started and completed a 20-year war in Afghanistan. Followed by two years of quibbling over how we handled those final months in Kabul.
We are STILL no closer to having a solution to illegal visa overstays. But that might be ready to change.
The Timely Departure Act would require some foreign nationals seeking admission to the U.S. on a temporary visa to pay between $5,000 and $15,000 in a bond or cash payment. That money would then be returned to them when they leave the U.S. by the terms of the visa or transfer to a green card.
If they overstayed, however, that money would be retained by the Department of Homeland Security, and it would be diverted into an account – the ‘Immigration Detention and Enforcement Account” – to fund the detention and removal of those in the country illegally.
The bill would also bar visa overstays from making a defensive asylum claim after their visas have expired.
[…]
Vance’s office noted data that there are approximately 700,000 visa overstays a year, making it an often-overlooked but significant contribution to the illegal immigration problem the U.S. is tackling. In FY 2020, there were 684,499 overstays – about 1.48% of expected departures.
“America is a welcoming nation, but we are also a nation of laws,” Vance said in a statement. “Millions of people in this country have abused our visa system and circumvented our legal immigration process. It is a slap in the face to the working-class Ohioans whose wages are suffering – I will not stand for it.” — FoxNews.
