Senator Proposes Law Requiring Foreigners to Pay a Bond to Enter the United States

2023-07-29 13:37:00

MIAMI—The senator Ohio Republican JD Vance filed a project of law that if approved would force foreigners to pay between $5,000 and $15,000 to enter the United States. The measure is intended to prevent them from staying in the country illegally.

Experts consulted regarding the controversial proposal, assure that it does not qualify as an unconstitutional measure “because the national security entities have the absolute power to establish new conditions to avoid breaking or breaking the immigration law,” said lawyer María Herrera Mellado, migration specialist.

The objective of the legal proposal is to eliminate or reduce to the maximum the intentions of foreigners to remain in the country by letting their entry permits expire.

When asked if this proposal strays from the US constitutional norms, the expert lawyer in immigration matters, Santiago Alpizar He indicated that in “this case the US would not be prohibiting free movement, it only conditions it to the payment of a kind of exit guarantee at the time the permanence granted for a visa entry expires” for which reason he does not believe that it is unconstitutional. These migration policies are carried out by all the countries in the world, the expert noted.

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Senator asks US Non-Immigrants to post a bond

For her part, the lawyer JaggedHe said that it seems like a novel measure and agreed with Alpizar that it is not in conflict with the constitution.

“It is true that what immigrants are currently required to do is demonstrate that they have sufficient funds to cover their expenses when they are on US soil. Now, in the event of a new law, which obliges the non-immigrant to deposit a fund, the truth is that it does not seem bad to me ”, she pointed out.

However, Herrera Mellado estimates that if the proposal becomes law, it would have an impact on tourism and would reduce the number of people who come to study because it is already expensive to buy the plane ticket and pay for the university, lodging, among other things. ” and if one adds to that bail logically it will increase the costs.

In short, this bill can be discussed without any problem in the US Congress and its approval will depend on the votes and not on a prior legal evaluation.

a nation of laws

The “non-immigrant” visa category affects tourists, students, work visitors, religious envoys, people with temporary work visas, among other categories, who would have to pay the bond with the amount that is eventually approved.

The plan would not affect people who are regarding to acquire a visa for domestic violence or for having been a victim or witness of a crime.

“America is a welcoming nation, but we are also a nation of laws,” the senator said. “There are millions of people in this country who have abused our visa system and circumvented our legal immigration process.”

money is returned

When the person leaves the country, the money would be returned, otherwise those funds would be administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the “Immigration Detention and Enforcement Account.”

The senator defends his proposal, pointing out that the resources obtained in this way will be used to pay for the detention and deportation processes of foreigners who let their visas expire, said the senator, who showed his pride in “presenting this legislation and bringing a bit of sanity to our broken immigration system.”

He cited that there are approximately 700,000 people who let their visas expire while inside the United States and remain illegally.

According to the parliamentarian, this proposal has its reference in another project executed by former President Donald Trump in 2020, aimed at 24 countries, mainly in Africa, in order to reduce the problem of expired visas.

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