Defining the problem
40% Of Illegals Are Visitors Who Stayed

By Andrew Moesel
According to most estimates, there are anywhere from 9 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, a figure that begs the questions: how did they all get here?

The majority of illegal immigrants – some 60 percent – cross American borders into southern states such as California, Texas and Arizona. In the last 10 years, U.S. Border Patrol forces have stepped up efforts to catch many of these border crossers, but the government estimates that for every one person arrested, two successfully evade authorities.

Some illegal immigrants simply find isolated sections of the border to sneak across, not too difficult a task, considering the border traverses more than 800 miles of barren desert. Others pay thousands of dollars to be carried into the United States hidden in trucks and car trunks by smugglers called Coyotes.

Both strategies have risks. It is not uncommon for a border crosser to get lost in the desert and die of exhaustion and dehydration. And every few years, authorities discover a truckload of dead immigrants, locked in and abandoned by an unscrupulous Coyote, who paid their money and were left to die.

The legal risks are far less. Even when illegal immigrants are caught, 95 percent are simply turned over the Mexican officials, who rarely imprison them for long, if at all – many try again soon after. Between 1961 and 1996, the number of border arrests has increased 20-fold, to more than 1.6 million each year, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

But while these statistics have focused attention on tightening security at the borders of Mexico, and to a lesser extent, Canada, a full 40 percent of illegal immigrants entered the county legally, walking off airplanes at LaGuardia, JFK and other airports, vacation or work visas in hand. When those visas expire, however, and it comes time for them to leave, many simply stick around in violation of immigration laws.

U.S. authorities are trying to deter this pattern by creating better tracking systems and databases of immigrants. Several legislators also have proposed using additional forms or a national ID card to make overstaying more difficult.

These considerations are miles away from the experiences of immigrants a century ago, when they arrived on a boat and were, for the most part, ushered into the country. In the future, we may have to change the inscription on the Statue of Liberty to “Give us your tired, poor, your huddle masses…with the proper paperwork.”