According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, over six hundred thousand foreigners who entered America legally in 2017 overstayed their visas and remained in the country until the end of the year. This is complicated news, as it can be interpreted in different ways. The number of immigrants overstaying visas has significantly decreased since last year, by 1.25% percent. However, 2017 was also the second year in a row that over six hundred thousand people overstayed their visas. This has caused many immigrants to become undocumented, and thus they are possibly facing deportation.
President Donald Trump has urged Congress to push for the creation of a biometric system which will mark the entrance and departure of foreigners legally visiting the U.S. The system would include an iris and fingerprint scan to improve tracking efforts.
Trump has apparently been trying to implement this system ever since he took office. However, Trump himself has prevented the biometric system from being implemented, as both he and his administration have focused instead on the long-promised border wall project.
Illegal immigration, unlike legal entrance, to the country has significantly decreased recently, with only 300,000 immigrants crossing the border illegally in 2017. This number is bafflingly low when compared to the massive 1.6 million illegal entries during the year 2000.
There are now more undocumented Mexican immigrants leaving the U.S. than immigrants entering the country. The number of undocumented Mexican citizens living in the U.S. has dropped by over a million. The changing landscape of immigration in the U.S. has left the Trump administration’s priorities oddly irrelevant.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons
