butterbean
Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 2271
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Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:29 pm Post subject: U.S. can't track foreigners with expired visas |
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WASHINGTON - Fly into the United States for a quick visit from a foreign country and you'll have your picture and fingerprints taken and your passport examined so officials can make sure you are who you say you are.
Fly home and chances are no one will even know.
Five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the government is still developing a system to track whether foreigners have left the country when their visas expire. Without such a system in place, the Department of Homeland Security is unable to tell when people stay illegally.
Experts say that as many as 4 million of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the country may have overstayed visas. The rest sneaked across borders. At least four of the 9/11 hijackers had visas that had expired at the time of the attacks.
The scale of the potential problem is daunting. Nearly 300 million foreigners entered the United States at land borders in fiscal 2005. About 86 million entries were processed at airports.
continued:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1113visas1113.html
And the Bush administration thinks "comprehensive immigration" will solve this problem? |
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