U.S. Can’t Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visa [Approx. 3 Million Visitors Unaccounted For!]

NYTimes ^ | October 11th 2009

[sten]

Yea... It’d be nearly impossible to track people whose source of wealth is based offshore. That would require a device that could search for transactions and associate them with locations. How ever could such a task be accomplished

maybe they can borrow that fancy machine device that tracked all that money made by the evil rich and stashed in those Swiss bank accounts

[Wonder Warthog]

Your “cure” is worse than the disease. National ID my ass.

[Tainan]

Yeah...Brits are a "special" group in the US.
I lived in socali (HB in Orange County - NOT L.A) for about 13 years. I bet I met 25 or 30 Brits/Irish/Scots who were living and working there and were technically illegal.
They knew they were breaking the law, their employers knew they were illegal...but they were not 'dark skinned Mehicans" they went under the radar.
And to a person, they attributed the ease of employment to their accent. Most Americans go ga-ga over a Brit accent...or an Irish one...Scottish not so much. No one really can under stand a full brogue Scottish accent...even other Scots. (*disclaimer - both my parents were immigrants, legal, from Scotland).
So for some, its made a lot easier because they can adapt and dissolve into the culture.
Trivia - most of the bathroom tile and bathroom re-modeling work being done in the L.A. area is, or at least was in 2004, by sub-contracted illegal Irish workers. And they do/did a darn fine job.
Also, Brit/Irish bartenders are always in big demand. Again, Scots inability to be understood, especially around whisky, works against them.

[Ben Hecks]

Finally...put a bounty on each one of these guys who overstay and fail to request a new visa....say $3k in cash to turn the guy in and then accept no reasoning for helping the guy ever again. If you got 100,000 bounty hunters on the streets of the US...we’d eventually fix the problem.

That's always been my suggestion....except I would require that high-risk individuals post a $10K bond which would provide for a more substantial fee for the bounty hunter and cover administrative costs.

[mad_as_he$$]

This is not news. It has been a problem for years. The NYSlimes just found out?

[gubamyster]

ping

[PhiKapMom]

They still haven’t fixed the problem that arose after 9/11 when they discovered thousands of people in the Country with expired student VISAs that they could not find?

INS looks to be jockeying with the post office for the worst run organization in the Federal Government.

[PhiKapMom]

9/11 showed the failure of the student visa program and wouldn’t be shocked if it was still not fixed. When they drop out of school no one was tracking them. After the OU ‘lone suicide bomber’ case, it doesn’t look like they are still tracked if they drop out of school.

Has to be a better way because the current way is a farce.

[Marine Inspector]

INS

No such agency exists!

[Marine Inspector]

“When they drop out of school no one was tracking them.”

Yes they are!

[wolfcreek]

No problem. While the White HOuse is doing the census.......