The Trump administration is planning to suspend or limit U.S. entry for individuals from countries with high rates of short-term visa overstays. In a memo signed by the President, he directed secretaries of state and homeland security to identify ways that will reduce overstays of visitors and issue the recommendations within 120 days.
The memo further notes that as part of efforts to improve compliance, “admission bonds” would be used to ensure people entering the country pay a fee that would be repaid when they leave.
“We have laws that need to be followed to keep Americans safe and to protect the integrity of a system where, right now, there are millions of people who are waiting in line to come to America to seek the American Dream,” part of the memo stated.
Other plans include replacing asylum officers with border patrol agents to conduct initial interviews to assess whether migrants seeking asylum have a credible fear of returning to their homelands.
According to the nonpartisan Center for Migration Studies, countries with high overstay rates include Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Liberia, the Solomon Islands, Benin, and Burkina Faso.
The US administration notes that there is a rising number of overstays in the country which has surpassed illegal border crossings, 20 countries have rates over 10%.
Another report issued by the Pew Research Center in 2oo6, up to 45 per cent of the undocumented population entered USA on a valid visa, but have not since departed.
