By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. could require up to $15,000 bonds for some tourist and business visas under a new pilot program launching in two weeks, a U.S. government notice said on Monday, an effort that aims to crack down on visitors who overstay their visas.
The program gives U.S. consular officers the discretion to impose bonds on visitors from countries with high rates of visa overstays, according to a Federal Register notice. The bonds also could be applied to people coming from countries where screening and vetting information is deemed insufficient, the notice said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a central focus of his presidency, surging resources to secure the border and arresting people in the U.S. illegally. The Republican president issued a travel ban in June that blocks citizens of 12 nations from entering the U.S. on national security grounds.
The new visa program, effective August 20, will last for approximately a year, the government notice said.
The U.S. government launched a similar pilot program in November 2020 during the last months of Trump's first term in office, but it was not fully implemented due to the drop in global travel associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the notice said.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Franklin Paul and Toby Chopra)
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