Foreign guests enter the United States with valid paperwork, but the government still has not developed the technology systems to track these visitors when they leave or find a way to monitor those people inside the country who have overstayed their visas.

This may be a virtually impossible task given the size of the country, the number of visitors and the revulsion Americans have for heavy handed and intrusive law enforcement tactics, but it is a problem, and technology has not provided the answer.

Immigration officials have reported that 2.9 million foreign visitors on temporary visas entered the country last year but never officially checked out. They suspect several hundred thousand visitors overstayed their visas. About 40 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States came on legal visas and overstayed, according to the government.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress has appropriated more than $1 billion to improve and expand the tracking systems. However, there are no biometric inspections or a systematic follow-up to confirm that foreign visitors have departed, and homeland security officials say that a universal exit monitoring is a daunting and costly goal.

Officials warn that the wrong exit monitoring plan could disrupt trade and traffic at border cities, and overwhelm immigration agencies.

Since 2004, IT systems have been put in place to check all foreigners as they arrive, and Customs officers now take fingerprints and digital photographs of visitors from most countries. But homeland security officials said they have not yet found technology to support speedy exit inspections at land borders.

The current system relies on departing foreigners to turn in a paper stub when they leave, hardly the high-tech solution one might expect.

For more on tracking foreign visitors:
- see this New York Times article

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