If the Department of Homeland Security is serious about increasing deportations, something some 77 million Americans presumptively voted for, the path forward isn’t new laws or even more immigration officers. Both would help, but neither addresses the core problem: DHS is not fully using the tools Congress has already built into the immigration system across its components. One of the most powerful and least understood involves the Visa Waiver Program, a reciprocal travel program Congress created that would enable some of the fastest, cleanest, and least contestable removals allowed by the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Travelers admitted under what immigration officers colloquially call “transit without visa” fall into narrow, short-term-purpose categories — waiver-business and waiver-tourism — admissions never intended to serve as a springboard to long-term presence.