Nonimmigrant Overstays: Brief Synthesis of
the Issue
Ruth Ellen Wasem
Specialist in Immigration Policy
January 15, 2010
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
RS22446
CRS Report for Congress
P
repared for Members and Committees of Congress
Nonimmigrant Overstays: Brief Synthesis of the Issue
Summary
As the 111th Congress debates comprehensive immigration reform and its component parts of
immigration control (i.e., border security and interior enforcement), legal reform (i.e., temporary
and permanent admissions), and the resolution of unauthorized alien residents, concerns arise
over the capacity of the Department of Homeland Security to identify and remove temporary
aliens who fail to depart after their visas expire. It is estimated that each year hundreds of
thousands of foreign nationals overstay their nonimmigrant visas or enter the country illegally
(with fraudulent documents or bypassing immigration inspections). The most recent published
estimate based upon the March Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS) is that 11.9
million unauthorized aliens were residing in the United States in 2008. Reliable estimates of the
number of nonimmigrant overstays are not available, and the most recent sample estimates range
from 31% to 57% of the unauthorized population (depending on methodology) in 2006. This
report will be updated.
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Nonimmigrant Overstays: Brief Synthesis of the Issue
Contents
Background ................................................................................................................................ 1
Elements of Nonimmigrant Visa Control ..................................................................................... 2
Visa Issuance ........................................................................................................................ 2
Border Inspections ................................................................................................................ 3
Emigration and Exit Data ...................................................................................................... 4
Past Legislative Action on Nonimmigrant Overstays ................................................................... 5
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act .............................................. 5
Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002.............................................. 5
Legislation Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations....................................... 6
Estimating Overstays .................................................................................................................. 7
Contacts
Author Contact Information ........................................................................................................ 8
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Nonimmigrant Overstays: Brief Synthesis of the Issue
Background
Foreign nationals not legally residing in the United States who wish to come to the United States
generally must obtain a visa to be admitted.1 Under current law, three departments—the
Department of State (DOS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of
Justice (DOJ)—each play key roles in administering the law and policies on the admission of
aliens.2 DOS’s Bureau of Consular Affairs (Consular Affairs) is the agency responsible for issuing
visas, DHS’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is charged with approving
immigrant petitions, and DHS’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is tasked with inspecting
all people who enter the United States. DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is
the lead agency on enforcing immigration law in the interior of the United States. DOJ’s
Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has a significant policy role through its
adjudicatory decisions on specific immigration cases.
As the 111th Congress debates comprehensive immigration reform and its component parts of
immigration control (i.e., border security and interior enforcement), legal reform (i.e., temporary
and permanent admissions), and the resolution of unauthorized alien residents, concerns arise
over the capacity of the Department of Homeland Security to identify and remove temporary
aliens who fail to depart when their visas expire. The phenomenon of foreign nationals who enter
legally on a temporary basis and continue to stay after their visas expire is a fundamental problem
of immigration control.3 This issue is not new; indeed, Congress has been grappling with options
to address it over the past two decades.
In the early 1990s, policymakers became especially concerned about what was perceived to be a
growing number of nonimmigrant overstays. At that time, nearly 2.7 million aliens had
established legal status through the provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act
(IRCA) of 1986 (P.L. 99-603)—a law which also significantly strengthened border and interior
immigration enforcement provisions. Nonetheless, demographers at the former Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS) estimated that 3.5 million unauthorized aliens were residing in the
United States in 1990. By 1996, the estimated number of unauthorized alien residents was 5.8
million, with about 2.1 million (41%) estimated to have overstayed their nonimmigrant visas. The
remaining 59% were assumed to have entered the United States illegally.4
1 Authorities to except or to waive visa requirements are specified in law, such as the broad parole authority of the
Attorney General under §212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and the specific authority of the Visa
Waiver Program in §217 of the INA.
2 Other departments, notably the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Department of Agriculture (USDA), play roles
in the approval process depending on the category or type of visa sought, and the Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS) sets policy on the health-related grounds for inadmissibility discussed below.
3 A nonimmigrant overstay is defined as when a foreign national who is legally admitted to the United States for a
specific authorized period remains in the United States after that period expires, unless an extension or a change of
status has been approved.
4 U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the
United States, by Country of Origin and State of Residence: October 1992, unpublished paper by Robert Warren, 1994;
and U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the
United States: 1990 to 2000, by Robert Warren, 2003.
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Based on the March Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS), an estimated 11.9
million unauthorized aliens were residing in the United States in 2008.5 The most recent
published estimate was that there were 11.6 million unauthorized alien residents as of January
2008, according to data from the American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census
Bureau.6 Reliable estimates of the number of nonimmigrant overstays today are not available, and
sample estimates range from 31% to 57% of the unauthorized population (depending on
methodology).7
Elements of Nonimmigrant Visa Control
Statutorily, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides the elements to control the entry
and exit of foreign nationals. Provisions of law requiring electronic immigration databases and
the collection of biometrics were enacted before the close of the 20th Century. The INA makes
clear that nonimmigrants who fail to leave under the terms of their visa become ineligible for
readmission.
Visa Issuance
There are two broad classes of aliens that are issued visas: immigrants and nonimmigrants. The
documentary requirements for visas are stated in §222 of the INA. 8 Nonimmigrants are admitted
for a designated period of time and a specific purpose, and they include a wide range of visitors,
including tourists, foreign students, diplomats, and temporary workers. In FY2008, the Bureau of
Consular Affairs issued 6.6 million nonimmigrant visas. Combined, visitor visas issued for
tourism and business comprised the largest group of nonimmigrants in FY2008, with about 4.7
million or 71.1%. Other notable categories were students and exchange visitors (11.6%) and
temporary workers (9.9%).9
For well over a decade, the Bureau of Consular Affairs has been issuing machine-readable visas.
Consular officers use the Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) to store data on visa applicants.
Since February 2001, the CCD stores photographs of all visa applicants in electronic form, and
more recently the CCD has begun storing ten-finger scans. In addition to indicating the outcome
of any prior visa application of the alien in the CCD, the system links with other databases to flag
problems that may affect the issuance of the visa. The CCD is the nexus for screening aliens for
admissibility, notably screening on terrorist security and criminal grounds, and links with the
5 Jeffrey S. Passel and D'Vera Cohn, A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States, Pew Hispanic Center,
April 14, 2009.
6 Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant
Population Residing in the United States: January 2008, by Michael Hoefer, Nancy Rytina, and Bryan C. Baker, 2009.
For more complete analysis, see CRS Report RL33874, Unauthorized Aliens Residing in the United States: Estimates
Since 1986, by Ruth Ellen Wasem.
7 Media reports indicating that 2.9 million nonimmigrant overstayed their visas in FY2008 have not been substantiated
by Department of Homeland Security data or sources. E-mail to author from DHS Office of Immigration Statistics,
Nov. 16, 2009.
8 CRS Report RL31512, Visa Issuances: Policy, Issues, and Legislation, by Ruth Ellen Wasem.
9 CRS Report RL31381, U.S. Immigration Policy on Temporary Admissions, by Chad C. Haddal and Ruth Ellen
Wasem.
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United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT), DHS’s automated
entry and exit data system, at the time the visa is issued.
Many foreign visitors enter the United States without visas through the Visa Waiver Program
(VWP), a provision of the INA that allows the visa requirements to be waived for aliens coming
from countries that meet certain standards (e.g., Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New
Zealand, and Switzerland).10 In addition to the Visa Waiver Program, there are a number of
exceptions to documentary requirements for a visa that have been established by law, treaty, or
regulation. The INA also authorizes the Attorney General and the Secretary of State acting jointly
to waive the documentary requirements of INA §212(a)(7)(B)(i), including the passport
requirement, on the basis of unforeseen emergency in individual cases.11 In 2003, the
Administration scaled back the circumstances in which the visa and passport requirements are
waived.12
Border Inspections
The INA requires the inspection of all aliens who seek entry into the United States; possession of
a visa or another form of travel document does not guarantee admission into the United States.13
As a result, all persons seeking admission to the United States must demonstrate to a CBP
inspector that they are a foreign national with a valid visa and/or passport or that they are a U.S.
citizen.14 There are 327 official ports of entry in the United States, including 15 preclearance
offices in Canada, Ireland, and the Caribbean. For FY2008, CBP reported inspecting
approximately 409 million individuals (citizens as well as foreign nationals) at land, air, and sea
ports of entry.15 Because many foreign nationals are permitted to enter the United States without
visas, notably as discussed above through the VWP, border inspections are extremely important
for those having their initial screening at the port of entry.16
Under the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) system, certain
foreign nationals are required to provide fingerprints, photographs or other biometric identifiers
upon arrival in the United States. US-VISIT has grown from a photograph and two-finger
biometric system for immigration identification17 to the major identity management and screening
10 CRS Report RL32221, Visa Waiver Program, by Alison Siskin.
11 INA §212(d)(4)(A). The Homeland Security Act (P.L. 107-296) transferred most immigration-related functions from
DOJ to DHS. Whether this waiver authority remains, in whole or in part, with DOJ and the Attorney General or with
the Secretary of DHS is ambiguous.
12 For additional information about these exceptions, see 8 C.F.R. §212.1; 22 C.F.R. §41.1; and 22 C.F.R. §41.2.
13 CRS Report RL32399, Border Security: Inspections Practices, Policies, and Issues, by Ruth Ellen Wasem et al.
14 CRS congressional distribution memorandum, Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, by Ruth Wasem, Blas Nuñez-
Neto, Susan Epstein, Todd Tatelman and Angeles Villerreal, Apr. 26, 2006.
15 U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Fiscal Year 2008 Performance
and Accountability, Washington, DC, February 2009.
16 For further background, see CRS Report RS21899, Border Security: Key Agencies and Their Missions, by Chad C.
Haddal.
17 DHS regulations exempted about 20 categories of individuals from providing biometric identifiers upon entry to or
exit from the United State; however, the CBP inspector retains discretion to collect an alien’s biometric information.
CRS Report RL32234, U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) Program, by Lisa M.
Seghetti and Stephen R. Vina.
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system for DHS. CBP inspectors are currently taking a digital photograph and scanning 10
fingerprints from each foreign national who presents him or herself at designated ports of entry. 18
Emigration and Exit Data
DHS does not have reliable data on emigration from the United States. With a few exceptions,
nonimmigrants are required to complete an I-94 Arrival/Departure Record (or the I-94W for VWP
participants) when they arrive in the United States and when they depart.19 The I-94
Arrival/Departure form is routinely collected from foreign nationals exiting at air and sea ports,
but it reportedly poses collection problems at land ports. Several years ago, the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO) testified that there were several weaknesses collecting the I-94
Departure Record at land ports of entry. Most notably, GAO concluded that the collection of
departure forms is vulnerable to manipulation—“in other words, visitors could make it appear
that they had left when they had not. To illustrate, on bridges where toll collectors accept I-94
departure forms at the Southwestern border, a person departing the United States by land could
hand in someone else’s I-94 form.”20
The exit component of the US-VISIT system has long been plagued with a variety of budgetary
and structural problems, particularly at land ports of exit.21 In December 2006, DHS officials
indicated that they were considering abandonment of plans to implement the exit portion.22 In
2008, GAO also found weaknesses in the methodology DHS was proposing to use to verify
departures of foreign nationals from the United States. GAO concluded that the plan to certify air
exit system requirement would not address all potential risks of an expanded Visa Waiver
Program. In that report, DHS stated that it would match foreign nationals’ departure records
against prior records “to determine that the person is a foreign national, and that the person did
depart the country through a U.S. airport.”23 A new GAO report on US-VISIT has concluded that
“an exit capability has yet to be fully deployed.”24
18 According to DHS, US-VISIT operates and maintains two major automated identification systems in support of its
mission: the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) for biometric data and the Arrival and Departure
Information System (ADIS) for biographic data. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, National Protection and
Programs Directorate, United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, Fiscal Year 2010
Congressional Justification, February 2009.
19 Mexican nationals with Border Crossing Cards (when traveling within the border zone for a limited duration) and
tourists and business travelers from Canada are generally exempt from the I-94 requirement.
20 U.S. General Accounting Office, Homeland Security: Overstay Tracking Is a Key Component of a Layered Defense,
GAO-04-170T, October 16, 2003, http://www.gao.gov/htext/d04170t.html.
21 U.S. Government Accountability Office, US-VISIT Program Faces Strategic, Operational, and Technological
Challenges at Land Ports of Entry, GAO-07-248, December 2006, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07248.pdf.
22 Then-DHS Assistant Secretary for policy Stewart A. Baker said a land-border exit system would cost “tens of
billions of dollars.” “It is a pretty daunting set of costs, both for the U.S. government and the economy,” Baker
explained, “ ... when you have to sit down and compare all the good ideas people have developed against each other,
with a limited budget, you have to make choices that are much harder.” Rachel L. Swarns and Eric Lipton, “U.S. Is
Dropping Effort to Track if Visitors Leave,” The New York Times, December 15, 2006. Baker quote confirmed by
Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, December 15, 2006.
23 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Limitations with Department of Homeland Security’s Plan to Verify
Departure of Foreign Nationals, GAO-08-458T, February 28, 2008, p. 9, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08458t.pdf.
24 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Key US-VISIT Components at Varying Stages of Completion, but
Integrated and Reliable Schedule Needed, GAO-10-13, November 19, 2009, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1013.pdf.
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Past Legislative Action on Nonimmigrant Overstays
Nonimmigrant overstays have been an issue in the debate over immigration control for many
years. In 1981, the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy (SCIRP) cited
nonimmigrant visa abuse and document control as concerns and included the establishment of a
“fully automated system” to track nonimmigrant arrivals and departures from the United States
among its recommendations to the President and the Congress.25 This unanimous
recommendation for an automated entry/exit system to monitor nonimmigrant overstays was part
of a comprehensive set of proposals that SCIRP offered as part of its statutory mandate to
evaluate the existing laws, policies and procedures governing the admission of immigrants and
refugees to the United States.26 In 1996, Congress put this recommendation into law; nonetheless,
the issue of nonimmigrant overstays has remained a congressional concern.
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
Congress strengthened the anti-terrorism provisions in the INA and passed provisions that many
maintained would ramp up enforcement activities in the Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996 (P.L. 104-208, Division C). In IIRIRA, there
were several provisions aimed at nonimmigrant overstays. Foremost, IIRIRA clarified that the
visa of a nonimmigrant is void as soon as the nonimmigrant alien overstays the period of
authorized stay. IIRIRA furthermore created new grounds of exclusion for aliens who are
unlawfully present in the United States. Those who are unlawfully present for more than 180 days
but less than one year and who voluntarily depart the country are ineligible for admission or
reentry to the United States for three years. An alien unlawfully present for one year or more who
leaves or is removed from the United States is inadmissible for 10 years. These provisions are
generally referred to as the three- and 10-year bars.
Finally, §110 of IIRIRA required the Attorney General to develop an automated entry/exit system
that among other things (1) collects a record of departure for every alien departing the United
States, and matches the record against the record of the alien’s arrival in the United States; and (2)
allows the identification, through online searches, of nonimmigrants who remain beyond their
period of authorized stay. As amended by several subsequent laws, §110 of IIRIRA became the
statutory basis of what is now the US-VISIT system, which uses biometric identification (i.e.,
finger scans and digital photographs) to check identity.
Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002
The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-173) expressly
targeted the improvement of visa issuance and alien tracking procedures. Among its provisions, it
required the development of an interoperable electronic data system to be used to share
information relevant to alien admissibility and removability and the implementation of an
25 Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy, U.S. Immigration Policy and the National Interest, Staff
Report, Washington, DC, April 30, 1981, p. xxxiii.
26 P.L. 95-412 established the SCIRP, which was also referred to as the Hesburgh Commission because it was chaired
by the Reverend Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, who was President of Notre Dame at the time.
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Nonimmigrant Overstays: Brief Synthesis of the Issue
integrated entry-exit data system.27 It also required that all visas have biometric identifiers.28 The
act placed new requirements on the VWP, specifically mandating that the government of each
VWP country certify that it has established a program to issue tamper-resistant, machine-readable
passports with a biometric identifier. The act also required all VWP countries to certify that they
report in a timely manner the theft of blank passports.
Legislation Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004 (P.L. 108-458) included
visa policy and immigration-related provisions aimed at curbing nonimmigrant overstays as well
as the specific recommendations offered by the 9/11 Commission.29 The IRTPA required
accelerated deployment of the biometric entry and exit system to process or contain certain data
on aliens and their physical characteristics.30 The act also expanded the pre-inspection program
that places U.S. immigration inspectors at foreign airports, increasing the number of foreign
airports where travelers would be pre-inspected before departure to the United States. Moreover,
it required all individuals entering the United States (including U.S. citizens and visitors from
Canada and other Western Hemisphere countries) to bear a passport or other documents sufficient
to denote citizenship and identity. The IRTPA required the establishment of new standards aimed
at ensuring the integrity for federal use of birth certificates, state-issued driver’s licenses and
identification cards, and social security cards.31
The Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-53) created
a waiver allowing the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) to admit countries with visa
refusal rates under 10% to the VWP. This waiver authority became available in October 2008,
when the Secretary certified that (1) an air exit system was in place that verifies the departure of
not less than 97% of foreign nationals that exit through U.S. airports, and (2) the electronic
system for travel authorization (ESTA) was operational. The ESTA is a system through which
each foreign national electronically provides, in advance of travel, the biographical information
necessary to check the relevant databases and “watch lists” to see whether the foreign national
poses a law enforcement or security risk. 32 The CBP officer makes a determination on whether
the nonimmigrant may enter the United States and the permitted duration of stay.
27 §414 of the USA PATRIOT Act (P.L. 107-56) also encouraged the full implementation of the integrated, automated
entry and exit data system “with all deliberate speed and as expeditiously as practicable.”
28 The Border Security and Visa Reform Act also required the establishment of electronic means to monitor and verify
the status of the students and exchange visitors. CRS Report RL32188, Monitoring Foreign Students in the United
States: The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), by Alison Siskin.
29 CRS Report RL32616, 9/11 Commission: Legislative Action Concerning U.S. Immigration Law and Policy in the
108th Congress, by Michael John Garcia and Ruth Ellen Wasem.
30 CRS Report RL32234, U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) Program, by Lisa M.
Seghetti and Stephen R. Vina.
31 CRS Report RL32722, Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004: National Standards for Driver’s
Licenses, Social Security Cards, and Birth Certificates, by Todd B. Tatelman.
32 Section 711(h)(3) of P.L. 110-53 provides: “A determination by the Secretary of Homeland Security that an alien is
eligible to travel to the United States under the program is not a determination that the alien is admissible to the United
States.” That subsection further provides: “A determination by the Secretary of Homeland Security that an alien who
applied for authorization to travel to the United States through the System is not eligible to travel under the program is
not a determination of eligibility for a visa to travel to the United States and shall not preclude the alien from applying
for a visa.”
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Estimating Overstays
Over the years, it became apparent that the data on nonimmigrant overstays were unreliable
because these data were based upon the I-94 Arrival/Departure form.33 Although the I-94 forms
are usually collected from foreign nationals at air and sea ports, the integrity of the collection
process at land ports is problematic, as discussed above. Moreover, two major classes of
nonimmigrants are exempt from filling out the I-94 when visiting the United States for business
or pleasure: Canadian citizens admitted for up to six months and Mexican citizens entering with a
border crossing card (laser visa) along the southwestern border who intend to limit their stay to
less than 30 days and intend not to travel beyond a set perimeter from the border.
Robert Warren, then a demographer with the former INS, attempted to calculate nonimmigrant
overstays based on estimations of the percentage overstays for each country. Warren’s efforts
yielded an estimate that 2.3 million, or 33%, of the 7.0 million unauthorized immigrants residing
in the United States in January 2000 were nonimmigrant overstays.34 In 2004, the U.S.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) attempted to estimate nonimmigrant overstays using
samples based upon three different methodologies. GAO concluded, “three alternative data
sources on illegal immigrants indicate varying—but uniformly substantial—percentages of
overstays: 31%, 27%, and 57%.”35
In 2003, Warren reached the following conclusion: “In general, the net nonimmigrant overstay
figures are more likely to be overestimates than underestimates because the collection of
departure forms for long-term overstays who depart probably is less complete than for those who
depart within the first year.”36 The 2004 GAO study, however, drew two different conclusions:
“The extent of overstaying is significant and may be understated by DHS’s most recent
estimate.”37
In 2006, the Pew Hispanic Center applied the Warren methodology (with some modifications) to
their estimates of the unauthorized resident alien population in 2006. Their estimates suggest that
out of an unauthorized resident alien population of 11.5 million to 12 million, about 4 million to
5.5 million, or between 33% and 50%, are nonimmigrant overstays.38 The 2006 estimate remains
the most recent calculation.
Estimates of nonimmigrant overstays residing in the United States are plagued by the broader
difficulties in measuring all three components of unauthorized migration—aliens entering without
inspection between ports of entry and aliens entering with fraudulent documents, as well as aliens
overstaying or otherwise violating the terms of legal entry. The extent that some nonimmigrant
33 U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection, Filling Out Arrival-Departure Record, CBP
Form I-94, for Nonimmigrant Visitors with a Visa for the U.S., Washington, DC, December 30, 2008,
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/id_visa/i-94_instructions/cbp_i94w_form.xml.
34 U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the
United States: 1990 to 2000, by Robert Warren, 2003 (hereafter Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the
United States: 1990 to 2000).
35 U.S. Government Accountability Office, Overstay Tracking: A Key Component of Homeland Security and a Layered
Defense, GAO-04-82, May 2004 (hereafter Overstay Tracking. GAO-04-82).
36 Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: 1990 to 2000.
37 Overstay Tracking. GAO-04-82.
38 Pew Hispanic Center, Fact Sheet, Modes of Entry for the Unauthorized Migrant Population, May 22, 2006.
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overstays become “quasi-legal” aliens (e.g., those who have legal permanent resident petitions
pending or have sought relief from removal from an immigration judge) further complicate the
estimates.39 Reportedly, the failure of DHS to consistently update the alien’s record—for example
if the authorized period of admission is extended, if deferred departure is granted, or if the
immigration status changes—is another major factor that prevents DHS from calculating reliable
estimates of overstays.40
A way forward on the issue of nonimmigrant overstays seems out of reach, absent a reliable
method to measure emigration or an effective exit-monitoring system.
Author Contact Information
Ruth Ellen Wasem
Specialist in Immigration Policy
rwasem@crs.loc.gov, 7-7342
39 Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: 1990 to 2000.
40 Overstay Tracking. GAO-04-82.
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