Overstaying your visa while you await approval for your next visa is how you get your next visa. It’s a normal experience in the process of the legal immigration system in the United States.
Nearly everyone I know from another country has overstayed their visa regardless of which country they came from, the color of their skin, their criminal record, their education level, what their job is.
White House press secretary stated that it is of the opinion of this administration that anyone who overstays a visa is a criminal.
Currently overstaying a visa and entering the country outside of the legal system are not crimes but civil violations. Doing either of these things does not make one a criminal. Trump made it clear yesterday he intends to criminalize such behavior, and states are already proposing laws to give “illegal immigrants” life in prison to keep the prison to slave labor pipeline churning.
