Washington, January 21 (RHC)-- Nearly half a million foreigners who legally entered the US last year, stayed in the country despite the expiration of their visas, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced.
In an “Entry/Exit Overstay Report” released in Washington, the DHS stated that, out of the some 45 million people who were granted non-immigrant admissions to the U.S. in 2015, a total of 527,127 overstayed their visas.
As of January 4, 2016, up to 416,500 of those individuals were still believed to be in the country, violating the terms of their visas. This is while the report did not account for the people who might have illegally entered the U.S. in the same period.
According to Pew Research Center, there were 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants living in the US in 2014. The DHS officials were slated to testify about the findings at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.
The U.S. Congress ordered the department to conduct reports on visa overstays in 1997. Lawmakers have been asking the DHS for years to provide the data, only to be told that the data could not be compiled. The department has also been tasked with improvising an “exit-entry system” capable of accurately tracking all people entering and leaving the US.
Foreigners who apply for the U.S. are interviewed, photographed and have their fingerprints taken before heading there. However, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is unable to get those biometric information from every departing foreigner.
