It takes more than just a wall to stop this!

A rarely talked about immigration problem is that of people who come legally yet don’t leave when their visas expire. How many are here in the country? No one can be sure but it is in the millions. Not only does the government not know how many overstays there are but what countries they even come from or whether the problem is getting worse.

It might be important to point out all 19 of the 9/11 terrorists had visas and 5 were expired. Since 9/11/2001 we have convicted 36 other terrorists who were here on expired visas. Out of all the millions of expired visa holders currently in the country any idea how many are terrorists?

It is assumed the majority of the people who came legally but did not leave when their visas expired came for employment. With no mandatory E-Verify system in place to identify ineligible people to work American jobs are taken by foreigners.

With no knowledge or control whether people were leaving when their visas were up after 9/11 Congress in 1996 authorized the establishment of an entry/exit system to be installed by September 1998. It only took opposition from the tourist industry to stop the legislation.

Congress in 2002 decided to try again to gain control of visitors coming and going so they mandated the implementation of a computerized matching entry/exit system to be implemented by 2005. You got it; in 2016, 11 years later, the system is still incomplete. Implementation is a necessity for our safety.

If Candidate Trump wins he can build a wall as high as he wants and man it with as many people as he cares to but it will have no effect on the visa overstay problem which numbers in the millions of illegal aliens.

For some reason Congress cannot fulfill a promise it made 30 years ago to President Reagan which was to set up a mandatory electronic system to verify job applicants were legally eligible to work. The Civilian Workforce Act by Lamar Smith, introduced years ago, is the latest attempt by Congress to enact E-Verify. The government tracking system gives the bill an 11% chance of passage even though it is flawed allowing illegal alien employers to keep current illegal workers without being verified.

If we want to protect American workers mandatory E-Verify is a necessity. Not only will it protect American workers but it will remove the job magnet for legal visa holders and illegal aliens to come. Think it will ever happen?

Personally, I feel like the frog in the pot being slowly cooked.

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