The crisis on our southern border has been in the news for years. In Fiscal Year 2022, border patrol officers had nearly 2.4 million encounters with migrants from around the world. They’re on pace to break those record numbers in 2023, and that tally doesn’t include got-aways or those evading detection entirely.
But all this is only half of our illegal immigration problem. There’s another surge, this one unfolding at embassies and consulates—and it begins with visas placed in foreign passports. The City Journal website in a May 30 article details that other half of the problem.
Roughly half of all illegal immigrants come to the U.S. legally on various non-immigrant visas (NIV)—typically tourist visas (B1/B2)—and overstay them. But the breadth and scope of NIV abuse is likely much worse than that. We still don’t have a firm grasp on NIV overstay rates because many ports of entry don’t stamp travelers out of the country when they leave. We do know, however, that last year consular officers approved 80 percent of tourist visa applicants worldwide. That includes, for example, 70 percent of applicants from China, 85 percent from Brazil, 46 percent from Iran, 74 percent from Russia, and an astonishing 94 percent from India.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers authorize most foreign tourists who arrive with B1/B2 visas for a six-month stay, and some can legally extend their stays for up to 18 months. They can’t work legally, but many work anyway. (Ironically, CBP officers typically give travelers from rich visa-waiver countries only 90 days, while those from less well-off countries that require visas get twice as much time.)
Foreigners can arrive here on tourist visas and then legally adjust their visa status if they marry an American. It’s also legal for foreign “tourists” to come here and interview for jobs. If they find one, their employer can file an adjustment-of-visa-status request for them. The bottom line is that the U.S. is likely the only Western country where one can arrive as a tourist and end up as a permanent resident without ever leaving the country.
Nice work if you can get it. The author concludes with the following:
No foreign “tourists” should be permitted to stay forever. If someone comes here as a “tourist” and then decides they want to stay, let him return to his home country and apply for a different category of visa there. And we should cut back the authorized stay for tourists arriving on B1/B2 visas to 90 days, extendable by a maximum of 90 additional days. We should also investigate and punish companies that abuse the B1/B2 training loophole, track visitor entry and exits more effectively, and bar visa abusers who spend more time in the U.S. as “tourists” than they do in their home countries.
For more, see the City Journal website.