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Watchdog concludes Biden risked security by letting millions overstay visas, including threats
The report exposes Biden strategy that de-emphasized tracking down foreigners overstaying their permission to stay in the country, leaving a staggering statistical mess.
The Biden administration risked national security by letting millions of foreigners illegally overstay their nonimmigrant visas, including 104,000 who posed threats, while launching fewer than 500 investigations to remove violators, according to a bombshell report by the Homeland Security Department’s internal watchdog.
“From fiscal years 2021 to 2024, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took few enforcement actions using targeted leads concerning foreign nationals who overstayed or otherwise violated their nonimmigrant visa terms of admission,” the inspector general reported.
“As a result, foreign nationals who potentially posed threats to the United States remained at large despite their illegal status,” the report added.
The report laid bare a Biden strategy that de-emphasized tracking down foreigners overstaying their permission to stay in the country, leaving a staggering statistical mess that included:
3,145,375 nonimmigrant visa overstays
104,049 foreigners who were deemed national security and public safety concerns
ICE conducted just 496 investigations and arrested just eight foreigners
The watchdog traced the crisis to a September 2021 policy change that directed Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) “to only investigate “Priority 1” leads — those potentially posing the highest threat to national security or public safety.
“Of the 1,769 viable Priority 1 leads, HSI initiated only 84 investigations (about 5 percent), resulting in two arrests,” it added. “The other 3,041,326 (96.7 percent) overstay leads were deemed Non-Priority.”
The IG recommended that ICE “develop and implement a plan to increase the number of investigations and enforcement actions on foreign nationals who overstay or otherwise violate their nonimmigrant visa terms of admission and whom ICE determined to be Priority 1 on its risk rating scale.”
The Trump administration agreed with the findings.
https://justthenews.com/government/security/tuewatchdog-concludes-biden-risked-security-letting-millions-overstay-visas