The recent attack in Boulder, Colorado, involving Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national who entered the United States legally but overstayed his visa, has drawn renewed attention to a largely overlooked segment of the undocumented population: individuals who arrive on valid visas and remain in the country after their legal permission expires.
Soliman arrived on a tourist visa in August 2022, which allowed him to stay for six months upon presenting his passport to U.S. Customs and Border Protection at entry. He later applied for asylum, obtaining a work permit in March 2023. However, that permit had expired by the time of the attack, and his asylum application was still pending final adjudication.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 400,000 people overstayed their visas in fiscal year 2023. Among them were about 2,400 Egyptian nationals—representing roughly 4% of all arrivals from Egypt.
While political debates often focus on migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, data shows that more than 40% of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. initially entered the country legally on visas and subsequently overstayed, according to the Center for Migration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank.
“Visa overstays make up a significant portion of the undocumented population,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law scholar at Cornell Law School. “They receive far less attention than illegal border crossers because they are less visible and more difficult to track.”
Visa overstays span a broad range of visitors, including tourists, business travelers, students, and temporary workers. Students attending short-term programs must depart at the program’s end or maintain lawful status through further enrollment or status adjustments. Historically, visa overstayers who have not committed crimes rarely face detention.
The Biden administration faces mounting pressure to improve tracking and enforcement of visa overstays, though the challenge remains complex due to the sheer volume of temporary visa holders.
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