Of course there is, but at present it’s only being used in pets.
Yes and there’s nothing you can do about it. So get over it
Obama for violating the Take Care clause. But that’s more in line with the political theory that if Congress doesn’t like the job the President is doing they can always find something to impeach him on.
I get priorities and stuff, but we cannot have a system where you can get a visa and then just stay forever. Otherwise, why waste money on the visa system? Just let anyone who is allowed to come here as a tourist to work here and stay as long as they like.
Having laws that exist yet are pretty much not enforced breeds disrespect for the law and those who enforce it. If the government doesn’t want to deport visa overstayers, then don’t deport visa overstayers! The right way to do that is to simply not have restrictions or time limits on the visas. Make it a blank check, which it is in practice. Stop penalizing people for being suckers by obeying the law.
But then I guess that would expose the Big Lie. Immigration laws exist to appease the rubes. Make explicit in the law what is actually practiced and the deception falls apart.
How do you propose to keep track of them?
If we can’t, then the system is pointless. Or we could actually implement e-verify, which would mean no jobs for people not authorized to be here. Self deportation would result.
Then I guess Congress needs to allocate enough money so that these laws can be enforced, instead of being their usual recalcitrant twits.
It seems to me that Congress continues to play the game of attempting to defund and hobble government services wherever they can, and then turn around and whine about how the government isn’t working.
Guess what idiot Republicans in Congress? The government isn’t working BECAUSE YOU BROKE IT.
Visa overstayers are not being caught and prosecuted BECAUSE YOU CUT FUNDING.
Oh God, not ‘self deportation’ again! Good Lord, it’s like Mittens has risen from the dead!
Well, they CAN, but sensible people can then point and laugh.
I’ve project managed projects like this - we need you to find and install a system to do X. OK, that’s a $3M purchase and project costs. You have $400,000. OK, well you won’t get want, but maybe we can do SOMETHING.
You’ve failed, the system doesn’t do everything we wanted!
As I quoted from ICE website above one of the main reasons they shifted to focusing on convicted criminal deportation/removals was to gain better local and state jurisdiction cooperation. It’s not just budget or priorities.
As well as ten dollar tomatoes.
The miracle of the free market in action!
Staying forever on a Tourist Visa is hardly a US problem alone. It happens the world over. Common in Thailand. Do you know where it does not happen? North Korea. You wanna be like them? Because that’s what it will take to ensure someone on a Tourist Visa never overstays.
They do the best they can in screening visa applicants. Based on my own eyeball estimate, I’d say the US Embassy in Bangkok must get up to 1000 applicants a day. Certainly in the hundreds. And it’s a rigorous process. I know, my wife has gone through it several times now. It’s not easy. They weed out the bad apples as best they can, I am thoroughly convinced of that.
There was a sad case in the news earlier this year. A Thai man emigrated to the US, working as a chef in Florida with a green card. Everything legal and proper. He wanted to bring his wife and daughter over, but being a green-card holder he faced a wait of up to five years due to the backlog.
So his wife consulted what turned out to be a very shady lawyer – an American lawyer, not a Thai lawyer – who suggested that to speed up the process, she divorce her husband and marry an American. Then she could divorce her American husband once in the country and remarry her real man once he had gained US citizenship. So she did just that. But once she divorced the American man, she was in the country illegally. No problem, said the lawyer, she’d never get caught.
Well, she did get caught, and deported. Her husband having obtained US citizenship meant their daughter had citizenship. So she was back here in Thailand alone. A few months ago, the husband, full of remorse, killed their daughter and committed suicide in Florida.
You can read the story here.
Just marrying an American is no easy walk into the country. My Thai wife and I have been married 22 years, and we just started the process of getting her an Immigrant Visa this past January. It’s fucking difficult, people, even in our case! Americans sit over there in America, and they really don’t understand how intricate the process is. They listen to total goofballs like that Trump idiot making it out like foreigners just waltz into the US easy as pie, and they have no inkling of what it takes to do that.
But sure, people get through. The wife in my story above managed it, and I honestly don’t know how they could make the vetting process any tighter than it already is. I really don’t. And I have first-hand experience with it.
Toward the end of my linked story, it estimates half the Thais in the US are probably there illegally. If the process weren’t so strict, it would be a lot more than half. Any more strict and you’d be like North Korea maybe. People like to talk big on this subject despite having zero knowledge about it.
People who overstay their visa are of lesser concern than people who never had a visa in the first place. If the government has had the opportunity to do a background check on you and not found any evidence you’re a criminal or a sociopath, and checks you as you enter to make sure you’re not bringing any drugs, bombs or deadly contagions with you, that covers all the most important reasons to keep someone out.
But the government does much more than that. You have to prove to their satisfaction you will return to your home country. Show bank accounts and property deeds in your name, show you have real ties to your home country. In the case of Thailand, you pretty much have to show reason that you won’t just go work as a prostitute somewhere if you’re young and attractive. Really. If you’ve ever even just lived in, say Pattaya, that Sin City on our East Coast, that’s actually a big strike against you.
They just can’t make it any tougher that I can tell. And it is a lot tougher than it was pre-9/11. A lot tougher.
Rule of thumb - if the thread title contains the word ‘Obama’, it’s probably stupid.
You’re overestimating, but I’d gladly pay twice as much for tomatoes if it meant living in an Anglo America. Can’t wait for the inauguration of Future President Trump!
If visas are just suggestions then why have a time limit on them? Just make them a blank check once you’ve passed your background check.
The result of a policy that is unenforced is an extreme unfairness: the law abiding get screwed obeying a law they didn’t have to, while the cheaters get to benefit from their cheating.
Bullshit. Any cheater who gets caught receives penalties, usually deportation.
Are you suggesting we do away with visas altogether and not let anyone into the country?