ImmigrationImmigration reform should address visa over-stayers

As the  Gang of Eight gets ready to release its immigration overhaul plan this week, one topic of discussion is how best to verify that  the 150 million foreigners who enter the United States annually actually leave.

 The Christian Science Monitor reports that the US-VISIT program, the policy of tracking who enters the United States and who leaves,  is an issue the group said it would  address in its proposal. Some  40 percent of the more than ten million undocumented immigrants in the United States today came legally, but stayed after their visa expired.

“Without a real entry-exit tracking system, the rest of immigration law is irrelevant,” Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration told Christian Science Monitor.

Currently, all foreigners who enter the United States are subject to biographic and biometric screening. In order to determine when they leave the country, their data is checked against airline flight manifests. DHS says the best way to track people leaving the country would be to apply a biometric  standard to departure tracking, but this would take about five more years to implement  and could cost as much as $10 billion, according to Republican Capitol Hill aides who have studied the system.

This is not the only post-9/11 security measure mandated by Congress which is yet to be implemented.. Developing a statistical measure for border’s security and determining whether “operational control” over the border has been attained are still not here.

Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida) believes the new immigration system needs to be fixed in all its aspects.

“You have an automobile that has no tires, no wheels, no doors, no engine, and then, alright, great, you put two brand new tires on it [and ask] ‘Why doesn’t it work?’” Diaz-Balart, a key House immigration reform negotiator told CSM.

Privacy is also an issue. A database of all foreign travelers coming into the United  States would only be able to make sure foreigners entering the country were following U.S. immigration law, “but the de facto effect is you have to build that same system” for Americans, Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the ACLU told CSM.

According to Calabrese, a system like this risks misuse by the federal government in the future, and even small errors which would mark U.S. citizens as undocumented persons or visa over-stayers could affect millions of Americans coming and going from the country every year, placing an enormous burden on US citizens.

Implementing a new immigration system would require significant space and infrastructure and that will cost money, which lawmakers are uneasy allocating. 

“Who wants to give $10 billion to people who have been told for 15 years to develop [an entry-exit system] and they can’t even come in and give you a prototype?”  Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee told CSM.

DHS says its statistics show that the U.S.-Mexico border is the safest it has ever been and that the current system is also keeping dangerous foreigners out of the country.

“We would like ultimately to be in a biometric environment but that’s going to take some time and some real dollars,” DHS secretary Janet Napolitano said at a recent breakfast sponsored by CSM. “From a safety and security standpoint, what we’ve got and what we’re deploying really gets us about 99 percent there.”

Those who want better results on border security say the current US-VISIT system, which keeps little track of who or where foreigners are in the United States, is an example for how  the border is not as secure as DHS argues,  and that DHS is just not vigilant enough  keeping a watch on who enters the United States.

“People need to accept the fact that this is part of border security – not just our physical borders and the perimeter of the United States but the interior as well,” Representative Lou Barletta (R-Pennsylvania) told CSM.

Many lawmakers argue that  before the process of legalization for illegal immigrants can begin, the border must  be secure. Immigration advocates argue that this condition  means it could be years or even decades before the process starts.

“The key thing to keep in mind is that the border is a perennial priority. We’re never going to be able to say border security is all done. It’s cynical to make 11 million green cards contingent on that goal,” Angela Maria Kelley, an immigration expert at the liberal Center for American Progress told CSM.

As a compromise, Representative Goodlatte suggested that until the full biometric system is put in place later this decade, a mandatory employment verification system should be put in place immediately to dissuade those who overstay their visas from prolonging their illegal stay in the United States.. If the past is any indication, this could mean it will take another five to ten years before any immigration reform  gets started.