New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that would-be illegal immigrants should fly into the country and overstay their visas because the federal government doesn’t enforce the visa expiration dates.
“If you want to come to America illegally, don’t waste your time going across the border and through the desert,” Bloomberg said last week at an immigration policy event hosted by The New England Council. “It’s dangerous. Just get in an airplane, fly here, and overstay your visa. We have absolutely no ability to track who you are and get you back.”
Bloomberg criticized the government for failing to oversee visas, saying it created a potential vulnerability to terrorist attacks.
“We have to be vigilant, we have to be in charge of our own borders,” he said. “We have to make sure that we have intelligent policies. For example, if you get a visa, you come here, we don’t track when you leave, so we have no idea how many people are here.”