A Republican senator proposed a bill that would impose harsher penalties on legal immigrants who enter the country on a visa but fail to depart the United States on time.
On Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) debuted the Visa Overstay Penalties Act, which would classify overstaying a visa as a federal crime punishable by fines and time in federal prison.
“The Boulder terrorist and 9/11 hijackers didn’t sneak in, they overstayed visas,” Banks said in a statement. “That’s just as serious and just as dangerous. My bill cracks down on visa overstays with criminal penalties to stop threats before they happen.”
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Overstaying a visa is not a federal crime, but it would be classified as one if Banks’s bill passed.
Under federal law, not departing
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