Can Visa Bonds End Tourism Mass Migration?

Illegal alien migration is not a hopeless problem. There are common sense solutions. Like tourism bonds for visa applicants from third world countries. A good chunk of our illegal alien problem consists of visa overstays for people coming here allegedly as tourists… and then never leaving. That amounts to ‘tourism mass migration’.

So the State Department is expanding its bonded visa program.

The State Department is expanding its visa bond program to apply to a total of 50 countries on April 2 and will require foreign nationals from these countries to post a bond of $15,000 before receiving B1 or B2 visas for business and tourism in the United States. The bond will be returned to visa recipients who return home in compliance with the terms of the visa and the bond or does not travel.

Nearly 1,000 foreigners have been issued visas under the program, and 97% of bonded travelers have returned home from the United States on time.

The new countries included in the visa bond program are Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, and Tunisia.

These countries join 38 nations that are already included in the visa bond program. Those countries are Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Fiji, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mauritania, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

These are a start.

Beyond the country list, a basic question about tourism, like any kind of travel to the United States, is to what degree does it serve our interests, and how much does it detract from them. Put it another way, a Canadian tourist is probably going to spend money and not overstay his visa, but what about a Bangladeshi tourist?

If a country has a significantly lower per capita income than America, tourists from there are far more likely to be moving here than just coming to see the sights. Anyone able to pay a $15,000 visa bond is in theory somewhat less likely to pull that trick.

But there’s a problem.

Setting the bond at $15,000 sounds like a good idea because it’s more than double the average amount paid to a coyote smuggler, but coyotes have been hiking their prices.

Human smugglers, or coyotes, have reportedly hiked their fees to get migrants illegally into the U.S.

Victor Clark, with the Binational Commission for Human Rights in Tijuana, says fees now range anywhere from $12,000 to $14,000.

“In the 90s, the coyotes were charging just $100 to get people across the border in the Tijuana-San Ysidro area, and $250 for a ride up to Los Angeles.”

Some are going up to $20,000.

To cross people by car, hiding them in secret compartments, they’ll charge up to $20,000 because the coyotes swear U.S. immigration officers get a cut to turn a blind eye.

Where are they getting that kind of money?

At the height of Biden’s border bonanza, well off foreigners, including Chinese and Russians, were just flying in to Mexico and walking across the border. Money was not a problem for them. A lot of tourism overstayers tend to be better off than average.

And third world mass migration is not, contrary to media and activist portrayals, the province of the poor.

A lot of people have called attention to the ‘military age males’ phenomenon. Some are gang members and terrorists. Others are going because they’re the sons of large families who invest in them. And then they send money back home. Some are in hock to cartels, triads and less criminal organizations that invest in migrants and then charge them interest and a big chunk of their paychecks.

Bottom line is that a $15,000 bond isn’t the ultimate deterrent. It can help, but it’s not going to stop the phenomenon. But at least it can help cover the cost of deporting them.