The State Department has taken a major step toward punishing foreign visitors who overstay visas. Those wishing to enter the country on visitor visas will pay a massive bond when seeking visas from a consulate.
It won’t be cheap, either. Would-be visitors must fork over up to $15,000. If a visitor overstays, he loses the money.
The visa bonds target two African countries that have high rates of visa overstays: Malawi and Zambia. Strangely, the visa bonds do not apply to countries with even higher rates of overstays.
The need for the bond program is explained in 2023’s Entry/Exit Overstay Report to Congress from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Of the almost 40 million visitors to the United States in 2023, almost all departed on time. Only 1.45 percent — or 565,155 — overstayed, meaning they are in the country illegally.
The vast majority of overstays were from non-visa waiver or Third World countries, notably those in Africa. Chadians were the worst offenders, with in-country and out-of-country rates of 48.75 and 49.54 percent. In-country overstays are those who never leave. Out-of-country overstays are those who leave after their visa expires.
Congo’s (Brazzaville) rates were 29.42 and 29.63 percent. Malawi’s rates were 14.14 and 14.32 percent, while Zambia’s were 10.45 and 11.11 percent.
Beginning August 20, the State Department announced:
any citizen or national traveling on a passport issued by one of these countries who is found otherwise eligible for a B1/B2 visa must post a bond in amounts of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000, determined at time of visa interview.
A B-1 visa is for business travel; a B-2 is for tourists. Visitors will pay the bond through Pay.gov.
“A bond does not guarantee visa issuance, and if any individual pays fees without being directed to do so by a consular officer, that money will not be returned,” the announcement says.
As well, visitors can enter the country through just three airports: Washington, D.C.’s Dulles; Boston’s Logan International; or New York City’s John F. Kennedy.
Money will be returned only if the visitor complies with the bond’s terms, as laid out in Form I-352. A key provision in those terms is that visitors cannot accept unauthorized employment. The money is returned if the visitor must leave the country on or before the date to which he is authorized to stay here. The bond is also returned if is he denied admission at a port of entry or doesn’t travel here before the visa expires.
A visitor forfeits the bond if he doesn’t depart the country or departs after the date allowed to remain, or seeks “to adjust out of nonimmigrant status, including claiming asylum.”
When the State Department will add the nations that supply the most visa overstayers is unclear.
The visa bonds are a pilot program that runs until August 6 next year, the Federal Register notice says. The State Department published a final rule on such a program in 2020, but did not implement it because of the China Virus panic.
Particularly dangerous overstayers are those from the Middle East, as demonstrated by those who have been convicted of terrorism or attempted terrorism.
The most recent example is illegal-alien terror suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Egyptian who attacked a pro-Israel demonstration on June 2 in Boulder, Colorado, prosecutors allege, with Molotov cocktails.
DHS quickly confirmed to Fox News’s Bill Melugin that he had overstayed his visa.
Four of the 9/11 terrorists overstayed visas as well: Saudies Hani Hanjour, Nawaf al-Hazmi, and Satam al-Suqami, and so-called Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui.
As the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) explained about Islamic terrorists:
They have come as students, tourists, and business visitors. They have also been lawful permanent residents (LPRs) and naturalized U.S. citizens. They have sneaked across the border illegally, arrived as stowaways on ships, used false passports, or been granted amnesty. Terrorists have even exploited America’s humanitarian tradition of welcoming those seeking asylum.
According to CIS in its analysis of 48 terrorists and how they entered the country
16 … were on temporary visas (primarily tourist visas); another 17 were lawful permanent residents or naturalized U.S. citizens; 12 were illegal aliens; and 3 of the 48 had applications for asylum pending.
Palestinian Lafi Khalil, convicted for plotting the New York City subway bombing in 1997, overstayed a C-1 transit visa.
Palestinian Mohammed Salameh and Jordanian Eyad Ismoil, two of seven convicted in 1993’s bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, also overstayed visas.
An obvious question is why the federal government permits the entry of anyone, other than dignitaries, from a country with a record of siring terrorists who have staged attacks here.
H/T: Newsweek