Visa overstays are a significant and often overlooked contributor to illegal immigration. The Biden administration was heavily criticized for delaying the release of overstay data, and when DHS finally reported the FY 2022 numbers, the results showed a serious problem: a 3.64 percent overstay rate, more than twice the rate of recent years. Now, a new DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) report reveals another problem: Despite millions of overstay leads from FY 2021 through FY 2024, including tens of thousands involving national-security or public-safety concerns, there was remarkably little enforcement.
The new report shows just how little enforcement occurred.
From FY 2021 through FY 2024:
- ICE received more than 3.1 million visa-overstay leads, including 104,049 with public-safety or national-security concerns.
- ICE conducted only 496 investigations based on those leads.
- Those investigations resulted in just eight arrests.
- Of 1,769 viable highest-priority overstay leads, ICE investigated only 84 and made just two arrests.
- More than 2.8 million non-priority leads resulted in only five investigations and two arrests.
The OIG concluded that a September 2021 Biden/Mayorkas policy directing ICE to focus its limited resources on the highest-priority cases was largely responsible for the lack of enforcement. The report also identified challenges involving locating individuals and allocating resources.
Visa overstays are not a minor technical violation. A visa is permission to enter the United States for a specific purpose and period of time. When someone stays after that authorization expires, he or she is unlawfully present.
Knowing who enters the country is only half of an effective immigration system. The government must also know who leaves — and enforce the law when they do not.
In 2023, Jessica Vaughan, the Center’s director of policy studies, outlined several steps the administration and Congress should take to address the problem. She recommended that the State Department adjust visa issuance standards in countries and visa categories with high overstay rates; bar sponsors and employers that produce disproportionately high numbers of overstays from participating in visa programs; expand ICE enforcement targeting overstays; impose penalties on visa overstayers similar to those imposed on illegal border crossers; and continue efforts to establish a biometric entry-exit system.
The Biden administration did little to pursue that agenda.
The Trump administration should make visa-overstay enforcement a priority, particularly when an overstay involves a national-security or public-safety concern. Identifying millions of overstay leads is not enough. The government needs policies that discourage overstays, a reliable entry-exit system, and meaningful enforcement when foreign nationals violate the terms of their admission.
The recommendations Vaughan made in 2023 remain relevant today — and the new OIG findings demonstrate why they are necessary.