RIGHT SPEAK: House Republicans: Biden Protecting Illegal Aliens Who Overstayed Visas with ‘Sanctuary Country’ Orders

President Joe Biden’s gutting of interior immigration enforcement is shielding from deportation illegal aliens who overstayed their visas, Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee say.

In a letter to top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, exclusively obtained by the Washington Times‘s Stephen Dinan, 19 House Republicans accuse the Biden administration of using its so-called “sanctuary country” orders to protect large portions of the illegal population — specifically those who have overstayed their visas.

The latest visa overstay report published by DHS this week revealed that from October 2019 to September 2020, nearly 685,000 foreign nationals who legally entered the U.S. overstayed their visas, becoming illegal aliens.

“Criminal activity on its own is not enough to make an illegal alien a priority,” the Republicans note of the orders:

Only “current” threats are considered an enforcement priority, and only then generally because of “serious” criminal conduct. Moreover, only those who attempt to unlawfully enter the United States after November 1, 2020 are considered border security priorities: it appears those who overstay visas and who initially entered lawfully are no longer priorities for enforcement at all. [Emphasis added]

As Breitbart News has chronicled over the last year, Biden has imposed broad so-called “sanctuary country” orders that prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting and deporting most of the 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living throughout the United States. ---READ MORE HERE

Total Overstay Rate

CBP determined there were 46,195,116 in-scope nonimmigrant admissions1 to the United States through air or sea POEs with expected departures occurring in FY 2020, which represents the majority of air and sea annual nonimmigrant admissions. Of this number, CBP calculated a total overstay rate of 1.48 percent, or 684,499 overstay events. In other words, 98.52 percent of the in-scope nonimmigrant entries departed the United States on time and in accordance with the terms of their admission.

This report breaks down the overstay rates further to provide a better picture of those overstays who remain in the United States beyond their period of admission and for whom there is no identifiable evidence of a departure, an extension of period of admission, or transition to another immigration status. At the end of FY 2020, there were 584,885 Suspected In-Country Overstays. The overall Suspected In-Country Overstay rate for this scope of travelers is 1.27 percent of the expected departures.

Due to continuing departures and adjustments of status by individuals in this population, by the end of December 2020 the number of Suspected In-Country Overstays for FY 2020 decreased to 566,993, resulting in the Suspected In-Country Overstay rate of 1.23 percent. As of the end of December 2020, DHS has been able to confirm the departures or adjustment of status of more than 98.77 percent of nonimmigrants scheduled to depart in FY 2020 via air and sea POEs.