Sen. Jeff Sessions Pushes To Block Illegal Immigration Via Airports

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is pushing an amendment to a routine airline-regulation bill that would facilitate a computer network to reveal whether tourists, guest-workers and other legal visitors have properly gone home once their visas expire.

Congress has mandated the implementation of fraud-resistant computerized “biometric entry-exit system” for more than a decade, but the exit portion of the system is still not operational at any port of exit.

Various experts say roughly 40 percent of the 11 million to 13 million illegal immigrants living in the United States arrived legally, but did not depart when their visas expired. In 2015, roughly 500,000 foreigners overstayed their visas, according to federal data.

On Monday, Sessions (R-AL), who is the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, filed an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act that would push for the development of a biometric entry-exit system at airports in the U.S.

According to the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, Sessions’ amendment would overcome a significant hurdle to implementation of the biometric entry-exit system at the nation’s airports: the assistance of the airline industry.

Potential airline objections were diminished with a revenue-securing provision included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016.

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