U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) convened a hearing on Tuesday to explore visa overstays and to press administration officials on their failure to implement a biometric exit system and track overstays.
McSally, the chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, said that terrorist have exploited the visa system to gain legal access to America “time and time again.”
“The 9/11 Commission put it this way: ‘For terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons,’” McSally said. “I am concerned that there are unidentified national security and public safety risks in a population that large, which has historically been the primary means for terrorist entry into the United States.”
The Department of Homeland Security released a report in January that found the number of people in the country illegally due to visa overstays has increased dramatically.
“In fiscal year 2015, fewer people were apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol than overstayed their visas and are suspected of still being in the country, making the estimate closer to 68 percent of those illegally in the United States,” McSally said.
A reliable exit system would be an immediate “force multiplier” that enables national security officials to focus on preventing terrorist attacks, McSally said.
“In order to tackle the challenge, the department has to first identify those who overstay their visa in the first place,” McSally said. “A mandate to electronically track entries and exits from the country has been in place for more than 20 years, and a mandate for a biometrically-based entry-exit system has been a requirement for 12 years.”
McSally noted 9/11 Commission findings that putting a biometric exit system in place would be “an essential investment in national security” because visa holders can easily overstay without such systems in place.
“And once we identify overstays, especially those who present national security and public safety threats, we must dedicate the resources necessary to promptly remove those in the country illegally — otherwise we put our citizens at risk unnecessarily,” McSally said. “Yet, even as we dedicate scarce resources to pursue this small sub-set of overstays, up to 25 percent of this group was found to have already departed the United States after ICE special agents conducted full field investigations. We are spending too much time chasing our tails.”
McSally said she would seek answers about how many current overstays pose a serious risk to homeland security, and whether or not ICE officials could quickly identify and remove visa overstays to mitigate those risks.