As the Trump administration wages a full-scale crackdown on illegal immigrants residing in the United States, one population has largely gone overlooked: visa overstayers.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its federal partners have focused on arresting and deporting illegal immigrants with criminal histories, those who have failed to depart the country after being ordered to do so by a judge, and illegal immigrants who entered by way of the U.S.-Mexico border.
CNN’s report this week that federal police arrested White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s relative has put the public’s focus on the often-forgotten illegal immigrant population: visa overstayers.
Bruna Caroline Ferreira, a Brazilian national and the mother of Leavitt’s nephew, was arrested near Boston on Nov. 12, according to a report. Ferreira had been illegally living in the country since her visa expired in June 1999, over 26 years ago.
Ferreira is not an outlier. A deep dive into U.S. Customs and Border Protection data revealed that hundreds of thousands of foreigners admitted to the U.S. each year on various visas choose to stay, sometimes for a matter of days to decades longer than they are supposed to.
Federal figures show that in fiscal 2024, more than 1% of all foreigners admitted on a visa failed to leave the country. While 1% may sound small, given that more than 47 million people were issued visas, it is no small figure.
Between October 2023 and September 2024, 482,954 foreigners became illegal immigrants for not departing the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
As of February 2025, the overstay figure for fiscal 2024 had decreased to 427,204, as tens of thousands of individuals chose to depart. But the remainder are still in the country, and the total number of illegal immigrants present in the country as a result of overstaying visas issued through the decades is in the millions.
ICE has legal authority to arrest and remove illegal immigrants, including those who become illegal as a result of overstaying a visa.
Leavitt herself stated during a White House press briefing on Jan. 28 that any foreign visitor found to have remained in the U.S. past the date of their visa expiration is considered an illegal immigrant and “subject to deportation.”
Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow on border security and immigration at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said visa overstays are “serious corollary problems to illegal border crossings.”
“Some eventually go home, but many either stay forever in the shadows or lodge asylum claims, most of which have no basis but to draw out the process so the applicant can remain in the U.S.,” Hankinson wrote in an email Friday. “We want people from all over the world to visit, but to remain open we have to enforce our own laws however and wherever they come from.”
The libertarian Cato Institute argued that 1-in-4 federal immigration arrestees do not have a criminal record and that the focus should be on criminals.
“FACT CHECK: 73% of people detained by ICE have no convictions. Contrary to White House claims, only 5% of people detained by ICE have violent convictions—73% have no convictions,” CATO wrote in a post to X on Friday. “Also, President Trump recognizes that deporting good workers is hurting the US economy. ICE should redirect its resources to serious public safety threats.”
FACT CHECK: 73% of people detained by ICE have no convictions.
— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) November 26, 2025
Contrary to White House claims, only 5% of people detained by ICE have violent convictions—73% have no convictions. Also, President Trump recognizes that deporting good workers is hurting the US economy.
ICE… pic.twitter.com/z8Gh20LSuP
The National Immigration Center for Enforcement, an organization in Washington that advocates of the enforcement of immigration laws, said visa overstays are “not a side issue” and that they make up a “massive” share of the illegal immigrant population.
“When millions can ignore departure dates or final removal orders without consequences, you are practically inviting more to do the same,” NICE President RJ Hauman wrote in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
The Trump administration’s focus on what it has described as the “worst of the worst” sends the message to “overstayers, illegal entrants, absconders, and non-violent offenders they are basically safe unless they do something horrific,” Hauman said.
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A serious approach to enforcement should focus as aggressively on arresting criminals as well as individuals who have overstayed their visas or evaded a judge’s order to leave the country, according to Hauman.
“Sovereignty means the rules apply to everyone, and no Border Patrol attention tour is going to hide that,” Hauman said.
