Homeland Security Should Keep Tabs on Visa Overstays

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 5, 2004

Byline: James R. Edwards Jr., SPECIAL TO INSIGHT

Think fast: You're a government official charged with securing the homeland and enforcing the nation's immigration laws. You have a program that works well. Liberal special interests criticize it vigorously because it's effective. What do you do?

If you're running the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), you kill the program.

Common sense would dictate not only retention but expansion of such a successful government program. But DHS officials have scrapped the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS).

The Justice Department established NSEERS in 2002 because of the glaringly obvious problem of foreigners coming to the United States legally and never leaving once their visas expire, but the glaringly obvious security threat of such a problem in light of the September 11 terrorist attacks. In fact, three of the 9/11 hijackers were overstaying temporary visas on that fateful day more than two years ago.

The connection between foreign visitors from terrorist-sponsoring nations and al-Qaeda's war against the United States pursued from within our borders became all the more obvious during the last two years as the FBI has gone after terrorist cells, many populated by Arab and Muslim holders of nonimmigrant visas.

The NSEERS program passed from Justice to DHS after the new department was established. NSEERS proved itself a valuable tool for enforcing our laws the first step in combating any kind of lawlessness. NSEERS required males 16 years or older who are here from 25 terrorist-sponsoring countries to register their whereabouts with immigration authorities. It applied only to those here on a temporary visa, not to permanent residents from those countries.

About 83,000 aliens living here complied with the registration requirement. Authorities held 14,000 registrants because they were breaking our immigration laws. Another 143 were arrested on criminal charges and 11 were connected to terrorism. This means nearly 17 percent of NSEERS registrants were violating our laws.

Furthermore, NSEERS, coupled with actually enforcing the law, caused many thousands more lawbreakers to leave the country on their own. As word spread among the registrants' fellow illegal aliens, many of them fled to Canada or their own country rather than registering and getting caught and deported.

An estimated 26,000 Pakistani illegal aliens lived in the United States in 2000. According to the Pakistani Embassy, 15,000 of them have left since September 11, thanks in no small part to NSEERS.

Visa overstaying comprises a significant part of the illegal-immigration problem. An estimated 40 percent of the 9 million illegal aliens (3.6 million) are overstays.

The United States now issues 33 million nonimmigrant visas each year. A troubling number will overstay their temporary visas and become illegal aliens. Plus, fraud runs rampant in nonimmigrant visa programs "identity fraud, document fraud, counterfeiting, corrupt employees (both American and foreign) and widespread lying and misrepresentation on the part of applicants," according to Center for Immigration Studies researcher Jessica Vaughan.

Certainly, many frauds end up with visas issued to them. Thus, the United States cannot afford not to require periodic and routine registration through NSEERS.

Were NSEERS expanded rather than ditched, alien registration would hold accountable those who otherwise would sink into a shadow existence here. NSEERS expansion would increase America's security. The No. 1 target of foreign terrorists and criminal networks of all kinds must demand accountability and lawfulness from its foreign visitors.

DHS claims that its United States Visitor and Immigrant Indication Technology (USVISIT) system, which won't be fully on-line for two years, renders NSEERS unnecessary. Not true. USVISIT will only record an alien's entry and exit. And it's prospective only. USVISIT won't capture information about the millions of aliens already here on temporary visas, many for years at a time, except when they travel abroad.

DHS appears to have been overly timid and too willing to allow gaps to exist. In the face of some noisy opposition it moved too quickly. If it can be proved that NSEERS won't be needed once USVISIT is up and running, then DHS should at least keep all elements of NSEERS until that time. By dropping it before USVISIT is fully up, DHS is leaving a significant gap.

The NSEERS annual registration of all long-term alien visitors is hardly too much to ask of beneficiaries of the most generous, open nation in the world that's also the top destination of internationals.

James R. Edwards Jr., coauthor of The Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform, is an adjunct fellow with the Hudson Institute. Contact him at o2bnse2000@yahoo.com.