The secretary of state and the secretary of homeland security are required to submit plans within four months to crack down on overstays. More than 1.2 million foreigners overstayed their visas from 2016 to 2017, according to the most recent Homeland Security data. In 2006, the Pew Research Center estimated that nearly half of the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants entered the country legally on visas, but remained after their visas expired, turning them into undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation. Stopping visa overstays has proved just as difficult as sealing the southern border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has initiated many pilot projects to test that technology, including facial recognition software that is currently being used at 13 airports around the country. Possible punishments against some countries now include limiting the number of visas granted, limiting the time its citizens are allowed to travel to the U.S. and requiring citizens to provide more documents when traveling. The administration is also considering developing “admission bonds.” People entering the country would pay a fee that would be reimbursed when they leave, in an effort to improve compliance. “We have laws that need to be followed to keep Americans safe and to protect the integrity of a system where, right now, there are millions of people who are waiting in line to come to America to seek the American Dream,” Trump said in a statement.
