Foreign nationals overstaying their visas, and thus becoming illegal aliens, has reportedly hit a “record number” under President Joe Biden’s watch, new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data suggests.
Biden’s DHS released its annual visa overstay report for Fiscal Year 2022, revealing that nearly 854,000 foreign nationals overstayed their visas from October 2021 through September 2022 — more than 795,000 of which remain illegal aliens in the United States, while close to 59,000 left the U.S. only after their visas expired.
Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research Jessica Vaughan writes that the figure is “probably a record high” for the DHS. For comparison, in Fiscal Year 2015, about 482,000 foreign nationals had overstayed their visas.
“The total overstay rate for 2022 was 3.64 percent, which is more than double the rate of recent years,” Vaughan writes.
Last year alone, more than 172,000 Venezuelans overstayed their visas — an overstay rate of more than 44 percent. Likewise, 16,750 Indian nationals overstayed their visas, as well as more than 25,000 Dominicans, 14,000 Ecuadorians, 21,000 Chinese nationals, and close to 22,000 Colombians.
The report shows more than 190,000 illegal aliens from Fiscal Year 2021 remained in the U.S. as of February of this year, after having overstayed their visas from September 2020 through October 2021.
Vaughan suggests Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should have targeted efforts to enforce federal immigration law over visa overstays, and Congress should implement the same penalties for visa overstays as those convicted of crossing the border illegally.
Lastly, Vaughan writes, “Congress should continue to press DHS to build the biometric entry-exit system that will help maintain the integrity of the visa programs,” a federal effort that has been kicked down the road for decades.
Today, there are anywhere from 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. Estimates have repeatedly projected that about half of all illegal aliens living in the country arrived on visas and subsequently overstayed.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.