The plan, detailed in a proposed federal regulation, would require bonds of up to $15,000 for foreign nationals traveling to the United States on tourist and business visas from a select group of countries with high visa overstay rates.
Visa holders would only receive their bonds back once they have departed the United States.
The pilot program would run for 12 months before the Trump administration would then review the results to see whether overstay rates decreased from the countries hit with the bonds.
The proposed regulation further states:
Under the Pilot Program, as discussed further below, visa bonds may be required from certain applicants for B-1/B-2 visas who are nationals of countries identified by the Department of State as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering Citizenship by Investment (“CBI”), if the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement. The Department will announce the covered countries via Travel.State.Gov no fewer than 15 days before the Pilot Program takes effect, and this list may be amended throughout the pilot, with 15 days from announcement to enactment. In announcing the covered countries, the Department will also provide a brief explanation of the basis for requiring bonds consistent with this rule. [Emphasis added]
The latest visa overstay report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), spanning most of 2023, about 400,000 foreign nationals overstayed their visas and failed to depart the U.S. when they were supposed to.
Several countries have business and tourist visa overstay rates that exceed 20 percent, including Burma, Chad, the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, and Haiti.
DHS has long estimated that about half of the nation’s 11 million to 22 million illegal aliens arrived on visas but eventually overstayed those visas.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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