Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., introduced legislation on Thursday that would prevent the secretary of homeland security from receiving a paycheck until he implements a plan to ensure all migrants in the U.S. on a visa are required to leave the country when their visa expires.
Graves says his Preventing Illegal Visa Overstays Act is needed because visa overstays and illegal immigration are becoming a huge burden on U.S. taxpayers.
“There are 12 million illegal immigrants in this country – drawing welfare benefits, sending their children to public schools, and pushing down wages for American workers – but the problem extends well beyond amnesty and open borders,” he said.
Under current law, the Department of Homeland Security is the agency tasked with preventing people from overstaying their visas. Graves said DHS is supposed to have deployed a biometric exit system to track people leaving the country, but it hasn’t been fully implemented.
His bill would withhold the pay of the DHS secretary until the biometric exit system is in place.
“If we don’t enforce visa laws, we basically have open borders,” Graves said. “DHS has got to take advantage of the technology we have to keep illegal immigration numbers down, and my bill will make sure that happens.”
Graves also noted that this year, a congressional hearing found heard that as many as 40 percent of everyone living in the U.S. illegally has an expired visa.
Immigration has become a key element in the 2016 elections, and GOP front-runner Donald Trump has continued to say the U.S. needs to build a wall on the southern U.S. border to keep illegal immigrants out.
