00:07

Ed Helmore writes for the Guardian about the White House’s new focus with immigration:

The White House has opened a new front in its war on illegal immigration, threatening nations to punish with high rates of visitors who arrive in the US legally and then remain after their visas expire.

In a presidential memo issued on Monday, Trump described visa overstays a “widespread problem” and instructed the department of homeland security to consider action against countries that have business and tourist visa overstays higher than 10 percent.

According to a Washington Post report, 20 countries fall into that category, though with the exception of Syria and Nigeria, they account for fewer than 1,000 overstayers each.

Thirteen of the countries identified are in Africa, with Djibouti topping of list with 180 of the 403 business and tourism travelers to the US in 2018 overstaying. Chad’s 30.8 percent overstay rate amounted to 165 people. Yemen, with the third-highest rate, had 518 overstayers.

The report found that Mexico had more than 43,000 overstays — a rate of 1.5 percent — and that Canada had 88,000 overstays, at a rate of less than 1 percent. The list only consider travelers who entered the country legally.

Of the 50 million visitors who entered the US last year, nearly 667,000 people overstayed their visas last year. In fiscal 2017, more than 700,000 people stayed in the United States longer than they were allowed.

Trump gave the state department four months to consult with Homeland Security officials and the attorney general to recommend sanctions.