(TheConservativeTimes.org) – The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has just released its annual visa overstay report, revealing nearly 854,000 foreign nationals violated the terms of their visas from Oct. 2022 to Sept. 2022. Over 795,000 of those 854,000 foreign nationals still reside in the United States illegally, with only almost 59,000 left after their visas expired.
According to Jessica Vaughn, writer for the Center for Immigration Studies, the 2022 DHS statistics are “probably a record high,” with the overstay rate for the year being 3.64%, reportedly more than double the rate in recent years.
Vaughn wrote that approximately 98,000 foreign nationals under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) overstayed in 2022. Spain had the largest number and highest rate of offenders, clocking in at 28,356 overstays with a rate of 5.6%.
Meanwhile, Venezuela topped the charts for the highest amount of overstays as a non-VWP country, with about 173,000 visitors who did not leave when they were supposed to. According to Vaughn, this is due to the Biden administration’s designation of Venezuelans as Temporary Protected Status, which allows them to have a work permit.
The largest numbers of overstays below Venezuelans come from Mexican citizens, with about 124,000 violations at a rate of 3.5%.
For the first time, the DHS further divided the original three sub-categories of student and exchange visas. Vocational students had the highest overstay rate, at 9.1%. Exchange students had a rate of 5.6%, and traditional students, like college or university attendees, ranked at 4.1%.
More than 9,000 Chinese nationals overstayed on student or exchange visas, representing more than 16% of all student/exchange visa overstays.
Vaughn also writes that Visa overstays are a “significant contributor” to the nation’s continuing struggle with illegal immigration and that combating the problem requires a “multi-pronged approach.” She writes that the State Department should be required to adjust visa issuance standards to ensure that visa issues reflect current overstay risks, depending on the country of origin.
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