2006年VOA标准英语-Legal Immigrants Violate Visa Restrictions

By Zulima Palacio
Washington, DC
08 June 2006
 
watch Immigration Overstays

Much of the discussion about illegal immigration control in the United States has centered on border enforcement and building fences along the border with Mexico. New analysis shows that nearly half of illegal immigrants came into the country legally and overstayed their visas. Among them was Zacharias Moussaoui, who has been convicted of terrorist offenses¹. Other suspected terrorists have done the same.

----------------------------------------------

Immigrants waiting to cross the border   
  

Every day, thousands of people wait in lines at U.S. borders and embassies.  Millions of temporary visas are issued each year to tourists, students and temporary workers. The problem is that thousands of them decide to stay in the United States illegally after their visas expire. 

Jeff Passel, demographer² at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington D.C., said about 45 percent of illegal immigrants in the United States came legally through a port of entry rather than sneaking³ across a border. Some used a biometric border-crossing permit called a laser visa.

 
Jeff Passel 
  
Passel said, "With a population of approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants, that means 5.5 million people came in through ports of entry either with a temporary visa, or laser visas or perhaps fraudulent documents."

Passel found that the rate of overstays from European and Asian immigrants is very low. Rates from Mexico and Central America were among the highest. "It's hard to walk into the United States from India,” he said. “You have to have a way to get here and that way is with a visa."

Researchers also found that a high number of people coming across the United States-Mexico border do so with border crossing cards or other visas. These allow Mexican nationals to visit or shop with restrictions⁴ on how much time they can spend or where they can be. 

Passel said, "About 100 million times a year people use those visas, which is just a huge number. We know from talking to the people on the Border Patrol and talking to immigrants, that people are using these to come in the United States and then stay in violation⁵ of the visa."

Passel said visas are easily abused. People rent them or borrow them to come in and stay. He said collecting data on illegal immigrants is difficult. A lot of the information simply comes from statistical⁶ analysis. Passel is confident about the picture of the typical person who overstays with a tourist, student or temporary worker visa.

He said, "To get a tourist visa to come to the United States you have to basically be middle class or upper class. We think that the overstays have a different profile that tends to be more educated."

The Pew Hispanic Center says more than 30 million visa holders⁷ come into the United States by air each year. Another 150 million entries are registered through ports and land borders with Canada and Mexico. The sheer numbers, said Passel, show how difficult it is to control visa overstays

 

1 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

2 demographer   

n.人口统计学家

参考例句：

• Professor Antonio Golini is a demographer at the University of Rome. 罗马大学安东尼奥教授是位人口统计学家。 来自互联网
• Demographer William Frey says immigrants with young families will help keep the United States competitive. 人口统计学家佛瑞表示这些年轻的家庭会帮助美国保持竞争力。 来自互联网

3 sneaking   

a.秘密的，不公开的

参考例句：

• She had always had a sneaking affection for him. 以前她一直暗暗倾心于他。
• She ducked the interviewers by sneaking out the back door. 她从后门偷偷溜走，躲开采访者。

4 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

5 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

6 statistical   

adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• He showed the price fluctuations in a statistical table.他用统计表显示价格的波动。
• They're making detailed statistical analysis.他们正在做具体的统计分析。

7 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。