Friday April 26, 2019
By Hilary Kimuyu
President Uhuru Kenyatta and US President Donald Trump converse during the official visit by President Kenyatta and the First Lady to the White House in Washington DC. PHOTO | NATION
Kenyans who have overstayed their visa in the United States are not
among Africans who will be targeted in President Donald Trump’s latest
order for a crackdown on visa overstays.
The White House has said it plans to crackdown on the hundreds of
thousands of foreign visitors who have overstayed their US visas.
According to the US Today newspaper, the crackdown will
target 12 per cent of immigrants who travel to the US on short-term
visas but fail to leave upon expiry.
Based on President Trump’s guidelines, 21 countries whose 35,442
citizens overstayed their US visas in 2018 could face sanctions.
TARGETED AFRICAN STATES
The 13 African countries targeted include Nigeria, Angola, Chad,
Sudan, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti,
Eritrea, Liberia, Mauritania, Somalia, and South Sudan.
Nigeria is the most targeted because 29,004 of its citizens overstayed their visas in 2018.
On Monday, President Trump signed a memorandum directing the
Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit
plans within four months to crackdown on visa overstays.
Such plans include punishing countries whose citizens have a high
number of overstays and making it mandatory for foreign travelers to
deposit “admission bonds” that would be refunded once they leave the US.
SLAPPED WITH PUNISHMENTS
Such countries will be slapped with punishments such as limiting the
number of visas granted to their citizens, limiting the time its
citizens are allowed to travel to the US and demanding their citizens to
provide more documents when traveling.
In 2017, a documentary written and produced by Kaba Mbugua shed light
on some untold challenges Kenyans face as immigrants in the United
States.
The film which was released in Raleigh, North Carolina, featured a
number of Kenyans who candidly narrated their experiences in the US.
Official estimates put the number of Kenyans in the US at 130,000.
The figure is, however, disputed, with some claiming there are at
least 300,000 Kenyan immigrants in the country. Many are in well-paying
jobs or run successful enterprises while others are students.
Homeland Security data shows that 569,000 foreigners remained in the US in 2018 after their visas expired.