U.S. Struggles to Keep Tabs on People with Expired Visitor Visas
On Monday the New York Times posted an interesting piece detailing the story of Hosam Husein Smadi. Mr. Smadi was recently arrested in connection with a plot to allegedly blow up a Dallas skyscraper. Mr. Smadi had been illegally in the country for a quite a while, and should have been removed long ago.
Mr. Smadi's story highlights what administration officials fear is a common immigration situation--every year millions of people use a temporary visa to gain entry to the United States, but the government suspects that thousands of them never leave. Mr. Smadi appears to have been one of these people.
Since 2004 the U.S. government has put systems in place to check all foreigners as they arrive, no matter how they arrive. Customs officers now take fingerprints and digital photographs of visitors from most countries, and instantly compare them against law enforcement watch list databases.
In addition to the biometric measures, most entrants are also given something called an I-94 card. The I-94 card is a small square card that is supposed to be stapled into the person's passport. The I-94 card is supposed to record and reflect when and where the person arrived in the United States, and also present a date that says when the person is supposed to exit the United States. Then, when the person actually departs from the United States, they're supposed to turn the I-94 card back over to the government officials. The NY Times piece says that this check-out procedure often doesn't happen.
In fact, last year alone, 2.9 million foreign visitors on temporary visas like Mr. Smadi's checked into the United States, but never formally checked out. Some or perhaps most of these people may actually have vacated the country but failed to turn over their I-94 card. That said, the government has no way to be certain. Overall, government officials believe 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. came on legal visas and overstayed. The government has a very difficult time tracking these people down.
Obviously this situation brings about serious security concerns. But homeland security officials say that a series of pilot programs operating since 2004 have failed to yield a reliable exit monitoring system for the whole nation. Apparently they have not yet found the technology to support speedy exit inspections at land borders. Last year airlines balked at an effort by the Bush Administration to make airlines responsible for taking fingerprints and photographs of people exiting the U.S. So, in the meantime, the quest for a universal exit monitoring system continues.
Law enforcement agencies are left with the unenviable task of trying to weed through the masses to figure out who has overstayed their visa, and whether or not they pose a security threat. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on immigration, says he is trying to steer money from the economic stimulus program to build an exit montioring system. Given this situation's obvious gravity, it's surprising to me that Sen. Schumer's efforts haven't gained more traction.
