Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 150,000 foreign tourists, guest workers, international students, and business travelers entered the United States each day. All these entries come with an expiration date by which the visitor must leave the country or somehow extend their status if they can. While the inflow has almost entirely evaporated, the outflow has too, leaving millions of foreign visitors stranded in the United States desperately trying to stay legal and support themselves.
In fact, new data obtained by the Cato Institute from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show that of the 17 million air departures initially required to occur from January through April, only 10.9 million occurred. This means that about 6.1 million foreign visitors were unexpectedly stranded in the country beyond their initially required departure date. Of these, about 1.4 million were from Canada or Mexico and could have driven home. This means roughly 4.7 million foreign visitors were stuck in America unexpectedly.
They are attempting to extend their legal stays, but many have already lost status and been labeled illegal immigrants. Foreigners have become stuck here for a variety of reasons. Many other countries have made it virtually impossible to return home. Flights are canceled or entries even by their own nationals have been banned or restricted. Of course, many simply don’t want to risk contracting COVID-19 during their travel. The result is millions of people who have missed their initially required departure dates. Now they are scrambling to try to extend their statuses, but many cannot.
Read more at https://www.cato.org/blog/6-million-foreign-visitors-students-guest-workers-were-stranded-us-beyond-air-departure-dates
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