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U.S. (still) Can’t Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/us/12visa.html?_r=2&th&emc=th

DALLAS — Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country. New concern was focused on that security loophole last week, when Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian who had overstayed his tourist visa, was accused in court of plotting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper. Last year alone, 2.9 million foreign visitors on temporary visas like Mr. Smadi’s checked in to the country but never officially checked out, immigration officials said...

...officials said, about 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States came on legal visas and overstayed.

Smadi’s case has brought renewed calls (for) a universal electronic exit monitoring system.

But despite several Congressional authorizations, there are no biometric inspections or a systematic follow-up to confirm that foreign visitors have departed. Homeland security officials caution that universal exit monitoring is a daunting and costly goal...The wrong exit plan could clog trade, disrupt border cities and overwhelm immigration agencies with information they could not effectively use...airlines balked at an effort last year by the Bush administration to make them responsible for taking fingerprints and photographs of departing foreigners.

The current system relies on departing foreigners to turn in a paper stub when they leave....

Mr. Smadi was able to fade easily into society and encountered few barriers to starting a life here, according to court documents...He enrolled in high school, obtained a California identification card, landed jobs in two states and rented a string of apartments and houses. He bought at least two used cars, and even procured a handgun and ammunition...