The United States could require up to $15,000 bonds for some tourist and business visas under a pilot programme launching in two weeks.
The Department of State notice released on Monday said the effort aims to deter those who overstay their visas.
The 12-month pilot programme, which will begin on August 20, will target those seeking B-1 or B-2 visas from countries with high rates of overstays although the document does not identify the nations. In June, the US government announced the possibility of full or partial travel bans on visitors from 36 countries with high rates of overstays among other concerns.
The State Department said in its announcement the programme could bring in $20m over the course of a year.
“The Pilot Program is further designed to serve as a diplomatic tool to encourage foreign governments to take all appropriate actions to ensure robust screening and vetting for all citizens in matters of identity verification and public safety,” the release said.
The release notes that historically the State Department has discouraged requiring travellers to the US to post a bond, saying processing the bonds would be “cumbersome”.
In 2020 at the end of President Donald Trump’s first administration, the White House rolled out a similar six-month programme that targeted two dozen countries, most of which were in Africa. It was not fully implemented due to the drop in global travel associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the notice said
The Trump administration said the new programme would be a diplomatic deterrent for bad actors trying to enter the US. According to the report, there were 500,000 suspected overstays in the fiscal year 2023.
Trump has made cracking down on immigration a central focus of his presidency, surging resources to secure the border and arresting tens of thousands of undocumented migrants, including many who are seeking legal status.
The administration has justified its arrests and deportations on repeated claims that those who are “unlawfully present in the United States present significant threats to national security and public safety” although overwhelming evidence has shown that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than naturally born Americans.
A report presented to the US House of Representatives in 2024 looking at Texas arrest records determined that both documented and undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than US citizens with undocumented migrants arrested less than half as often as native-born citizens. A 2021 study by Oxford Economics similarly found that undocumented immigrants are 33 percent less likely to be incarcerated than US citizens.
