The Department of Homeland Security has caught less than 1 percent of people who have overstayed their visas in the U.S., according to a report by the Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security.
The report estimated 527,127 cases of nonimmigrants overstaying their expired visas in 2015. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 3,402 of them.
Problems with "fragmented, ineffective" technology systems were cited in the report. ICE personnel must consult up to 27 different computer systems in order to determine the status of an immigrant's visa. That process, which could take months, has led to a backlog of more than 1.2 million cases, the report said.
U.S. ports of departure do not have biometric exit systems that would collect details about nonimmigrant visitors when they leave the United States, so ICE must use third-party information such as airline manifests. That data does not take into account those who cross the border on foot or drive in vehicles, the report said.
"ICE must equip its personnel with the tools and training they require for the vital work of tracking visitors who overstay their visas," Inspector General John Roth said in the report. "Timely identification, tracking, and adjudication of potential visa overstays is critical to ICE's public safety and national security mission."
Another inspector general report, released May 1, noted ICE did not make sure personnel were trained properly to use the tracking system.
Two of the airplane hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks had overstayed their visas, according to the Washington Examiner.
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