A Republican senator proposed a bill that would impose harsher penalties on legal immigrants who enter the country on a visa but fail to depart the United States on time.
On Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) debuted the Visa Overstay Penalties Act, which would classify overstaying a visa as a federal crime punishable by fines and time in federal prison.
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“The Boulder terrorist and 9/11 hijackers didn’t sneak in, they overstayed visas,” Banks said in a statement. “That’s just as serious and just as dangerous. My bill cracks down on visa overstays with criminal penalties to stop threats before they happen.”
Overstaying a visa is not a federal crime, but it would be classified as one if Banks’s bill passed.
Under federal law, not departing before a visa expires would be considered unlawful entry. A tourist who overstays a visa could face up to six months to two years in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.
The bill’s introduction came in the wake of Sunday’s attack on Jews in Boulder, Colorado.
Trump administration officials disclosed that the suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was illegally residing in the country after overstaying a visa.
“The Colorado Terrorist attack suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country,” Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a Monday morning post on X. “He entered the country in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired on February 2023. He filed for asylum in September 2022.”
Soliman would have entered the U.S. on a B2, nonimmigrant visa, meaning he was approved to stay in the country temporarily.