Passport to Profit: Visa Waivers Flying Burglars into American Neighborhoods
In cities across America, a new foreign crime threat is taking hold. Over the past five years, professional criminals from South America and especially Chile have begun targeting American homes for burglary sprees. These criminals are not sneaking across the border or being let in by a Biden administration parole program like so many other dangerous foreigners. Thanks to bad visa policy, they’re coming in legally as tourists and (literally) making out like bandits.
Since 2014, Chile has been the only Latin American country whose nationals can travel to the U.S. through the Visa Waiver Program, meaning that individuals can simply register online rather than having to go to a consulate and apply for a tourist or short-term business visa. Organized crime groups in Chile have been attracted to this easy access and use it to their advantage. These gangs fly to the U.S. without weapons (to avoid gun charges) and case houses in expensive neighborhoods to rob when owners are not home. They may not steal your home itself, like some illegal aliens have bragged about doing, but these burglar tourists will certainly steal everything inside of it. These crimes have quickly taken a toll on community safety across our country.
By 2019, they were responsible for hundreds of robberies across Southern California, and their reach is now nationwide with thousands of victims across the country. Police from Arizona to Delaware are warning that these groups set up cellphone jammers and use sophisticated technology while ransacking houses. The Los Angeles Police Department has even created a special task force just to deal with this issue, since millions of dollars’ worth of goods have been stolen from thousands of homes in that city. The thieves tend to sell the items before leaving or ship them home, then simply fly back much richer from their crime vacation.
This crime wave highlights severe vulnerabilities in the Visa Waiver Program. As Orange County, Calif., District Attorney Todd Spitzer has highlighted, information-sharing through the program is inadequate and the U.S. is not notified when individuals have Chilean criminal records. The Chilean ambassador to the U.S. even admitted as much in a letter, saying that information-sharing from Chile had been inadequate and Americans have suffered as a result. Countries are only allowed to join the Visa Waiver Program if they meet certain criteria, like low overstay rates and good information-sharing, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that these are not enough to protect Americans from individuals abusing the system.
Another issue is that citizenship is by no means a proxy for origin. Chile is experiencing its own migrant crisis thanks to the collapse of Venezuela, and Venezuelan gangs have become as well-established in Chile as in America. The ability of foreign gangs to recruit locals who can enter the U.S. visa-free, or even naturalize their own members, presents a severe criminal threat. This is not to mention terrorists who use a Visa Waiver Program member passport to try to kill Americans. Islamist terrorists with British passports have already struck on American soil, and the Visa Waiver Program allows this threat to continue.
Tourism and business brought in by well-vetted foreigners who obey the conditions of their visit are a positive for the U.S. economy. However, the wide scope and many loopholes of our Visa Waiver Program means that visitors can end up posing a real risk. If the program is not changed, these burglar-tourists will continue leaving with much more than memories.