Who Exactly Are the Undocumented Immigrants in America?

You may have heard stories about undocumented immigrants. These people might not intend to have an illegal status in the country, but were only forced by nature to do so because of their needs. But, what are really the most common reasons for undocumented immigrants? And how did they land in America? Is it by crossing the border or by air and sea?

In an article published by MSN News, President Donald Trump's administration spent too much time to stop the entry of undocumented individuals in the country most especially those who cross the borders. However, one of the least widely known illegal entry points in the country are those who traveled through plane and was presumed to visit a family, attend a conference, or just for a vacation, but in fact, never leave the country after their visa expires. Around more or less 350,000 people traveled to the U.S. every day coming from Asia, South America, and Africa. However, most of these people do not go back to their homeland and decided to stay for good in the country. They are now almost common to those who illegally cross the borders.

Times have changed, the undocumented immigrants of today did not trek through the desert of Rio Grande but they flew with a visa and passed the inspection at the airport. Once their visa expires, they choose to stay. An estimated half of the 11 million undocumented immigrants are doing this.

Between 2010 and 2017 there were around 3.5 million undocumented immigrants in the country and 65 percent of them were stamped with full permission on their visas.

According to the demographer who calculated overstay estimates by using the Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey, Robert Warren "a big overlooked immigration story is that twice as many people came in with a visa than came across the border illegally in recent years."

This only means that most of the undocumented immigrants are not those who cross the border, but rather those who traveled through air and sea and passed the inspection at the airport or seaport.

The Department of Homeland Security said that Trump's administration may have limited the numbers of undocumented immigrants in the country who cross the borders by hiring more border patrol and upgrading the border walls. However, it somehow fails also because they only have limited access as to who goes out of the country before their visa expires.

Former federal visa officer Jessica Vaughan said, "Once they are in the country, they are home free because there is so little interior enforcement."

According to the migration's center data that around 46 percent of the estimated 10.7 million undocumented immigrants are overstayers. In the 46 percent overstayers, 1 million people are from Mexico. Moreover, between 2010 and 2017, 330,000 Indians overstayed in the country compared to those who are from other countries. There are also large numbers of people who overstayed that came from China, Venezuela, the Philippines, and Colombia.

There are also gigantic technological companies that hire undocumented immigrants like Apple and Linkedln who somehow sponsored their legal work visas or permanent residency in America. In a report from the U.S. government that around 670,000 travelers who arrived by sea or by air are expected to leave the country in September 2018 but only a few have left. Meanwhile, the number of overstayers decline in March 2019 because there were only more than 417,000 who overstayed in just a few months and returned to their homeland.

Some experts said that Homeland Security still lacks the technology to monitor who is coming in and out of the country. Meanwhile, according to an immigration lawyer from San Francisco Bay Area that many did not intend to overstay in the country and said, "They entered with a specific purpose and fell out of status for a variety of reasons, only to realize there is no easy mechanism to correct their status violations."