Visas are a privilege, not a right.  Entry into this country is a privilege, not a right.  Visas are abused by many.  Visas continue to be a subject of discussion. 

Once again, Michael Cutler from the CT Blog adds considerably to our understanding of the question of Visas and their management relative to control of immigration to the United States.

The J-Visa Program discussed:
http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2005/10/state_departmen.html
http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/files/Jvisastudy.pdf

…According to the GAO report, the State Department is failing to monitor this program. There are about 280,000 aliens who enter the United States each year under the auspices of this visa category and this report notes that in the last four years, State Department officials visited only 8 travel or trainee sponsors out of some 200+ summer work locations to make certain that things were as claimed by these sponsors. In fact, one of the sponsors turned out to be a topless bar! For your convenience, you can download a copy of this report below. The State Department agrees that there have been weaknesses in the way that it has carried out its oversight responsibilities for the last ten years.

The disturbing issues here go in two directions. First of all, the point to this program is to have the foreign students or other cultural exchange visitors return to their home counties with a positive attitude about our country. Secondly, this is yet another visa category that provides aliens with the opportunity to gain entry into the United States. Terrorists who would want to attack us need to somehow gain entry into the United States.

It does not matter if they run the border, stowaway on a ship, make use of the Visa Waiver Program or obtain a visa to which they would not be entitled if all material facts were known. For them, all that matters is that they ultimately succeed in gaining entry into the United States…

Discussion of the Visa Overstay problem:  Unfortunately, finding and rounding up fugitive, illegal aliens and those who have overstayed their Visas is also an issue.

Each year, millions of visitors, foreign students, and immigrants come to the United States. Visitors may enter on a legal temporary basis–that is, with an authorized period of admission that expires on a specific date–either (1) with temporary visas (generally for tourism,business,or work) or, in some cases (2) as tourists or business visitors who are allowed to enter without visas. (The latter group includes Canadians and qualified visitors from 27 countries who enter under the visa waiver program.) The majority of visitors who are tracked depart on time, but others overstay. Four of the 9/11 hijackers who entered the United States with legal visas overstayed their authorized periods…

http://www.visalaw.com/04jun3/11jun304.html
"The General Accounting Office (GAO) released a study showing that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been extremely unsuccessful in its attempt to track and remove visa overstays…The GAO focused on the fact that only a few hundred of the 13,900 overstays who are from countries that “sponsor terrorism” had been removed from the U.S."

GAO-03-563 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Homeland Security Needs to Improve Entry Exit System …

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03563.pdf - 930.3KB - GAO Reports

Overview: Pursuant to legislative direction, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), now part of the Department of Homeland Security, plans to acquire and deploy an entry exit system to assist in monitoring the flow of foreign nationals in and out of the United States. By separate legislative direction, INS must submit to the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations a plan for this system that meets certain conditions, including being reviewed by GAO, before funds can be obligated. This report satisfies GAO’s mandated review obligation by (1) addressing whether the plan submitted by INS, along with related INS documentation and plans, meets required conditions and (2) providing observations about the plan and INS’s management of the system….

http://www.visalaw.com/04jun3/11jun304.html

Comments on the Visa Program from the Center for Immigration Studies: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/usvisittranscript.html
Visa Overstay discussion: … Not only do we not know exactly how many overstayers there are, we have little idea where they came from, how long they have been here, what kind of visa they entered on. Are they mainly people who are eligible for green cards and jumping in line, products of our overbooked permanent immigration system? Probably many are. But undoubtedly many have motives less benign, whether economic or criminal. The point is we do not know. DHS does collect some information on visa overstayers when it processes applications for green cards and when it processes people for removal, but that information is not analyzed for the purpose of learning about overstayers. It has been 10 years since anyone at the immigration agency has made any attempt to analyze the overstay population beyond guessing at its size…

A contributing factor:

An article in CEO Magazine in May 2005 described part of the problem.

Flight of the Creative Class
The U.S. must invest more in R&D and universities to retain its best and brightest. BY RICHARD FLORIDA
http://www.chiefexecutive.net/depts/bookexcerpt/208.htm
As the global economy becomes more dependent upon knowledge industries, nation-states must nurture what Richard Florida, professor at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy, calls “the creative class.” The United States, however, is no longer doing so and could lose its economic advantage. That’s the theme of his latest book, The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent.

…we as a country don’t seem terribly concerned about investing in the future of innovative inquiry. Instead, the U.S. government is cutting key areas of R&D spending, while corporate R&D funding was also down by nearly $8 billion in 2002, the largest single-year decline since the 1950s. State governments have slashed funds for higher education and for arts and culture while pumping up funds for stadiums, convention centers, and other bricks-and-mortar projects…

…Investing in innovation and in our collective creative infrastructure is important for the U.S. and for the world…

…Around the world, in fact, leading countries will have to spend significantly more on research and development and on higher education, opening up universities and colleges to take in more of the world’s best and brightest…

…Why the U.S. is Losing Its Creative Edge

  • Post September 11 xenophobia makes foreigners feel unwelcome
  • Stricter rules for U.S. visas keep talented foreigners away
  • Visa delays make working with foreigners more expensive
  • Bright foreign students avoid U.S. graduate schools
  • Visa woes make it hard for foreign graduates of U.S. schools to stay here

Source: The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent

Our inability to eliminate the Visa Overstay problem is a continuing problem, and one that continues to threaten National and Homeland Security. Our continuing inability to find and deport identified illegals does the same. The fact that many municipalities continue to look the other way when it comes to illegals siphoning off benefits from the local tax payers unless they break a law - of course, other than the part about the fact they are in this country illegally - does the same.  The J-Visa issue simply adds to the problems of our immigration policies.

This entire subject was covered earlier on the blog:

Examining US Visa Security
http://moonagewebdream.blogs.com/storms_counter_terrorism/2005/09/examining_us_vi.html

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