Metro Detroit police brace for more burglaries by South American 'crime tourists'

"The (ESTA) program has a lower level of security," Bouchard said. "You can apply online, and it's a lower threshold than for getting a normal visa. After these people get here, they overstay their visas, get multiple IDs, and go around the country targeting these high-end neighborhoods.

Bouchard, who is vice president of government affairs for the Major County Sheriff's of America, said he has asked the Biden administration to withdrawn Chile from the visa waiver program.

"People would still be able to come here from Chile to visit if they wanted to, but they'd have to get traditional visas," Bouchard told The Detroit News. "The Biden administration is well aware of this problem because it's happening all over the country. But I've not heard back from them."

White House officials did not respond to an email seeking comment. Phone calls and emails to the Chilean Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Consulate of Chile in Detroit also were not returned.

Push to comply with requirements

Before Chile was added to the ESTA program in 2014, the nation entered an " Agreement on Enhancing Cooperation in Preventing and Combating Serious Crime," in which Chilean officials pledged to share information with American authorities to help prevent criminals from entering the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security told The News that the agency is working with Chilean officials to tackle the problem.

“DHS remains deeply concerned with some individuals from South America who travel to the United States and engage in criminal activity, such as South American Theft Groups," an agency spokesperson said in an email. "DHS and our federal partners have actively engaged with all levels of the Government of Chile to address this issue and have communicated the urgency of the situation."

Last year, U.S. Reps. Mark Levin and J. Luis Correa, Democratic congressmen from California, sent a letter to Juan Gabriel Valdés, Chilean Ambassador to the United States, complaining that Chile isn't holding up its end of the agreement of the visa waiver program, or VWP. California, since at least 2019, has had a rash of crimes committed by Chilean burglary gangs, according to a report in the Orange County Register.

"Across the country, but especially in Southern California, burglaries and other related crimes committed by individuals entering the United States under the VWP have been dramatically increasing," the congressmen's June 15, 2023 letter said. "We have deep concerns that Chile is neither meeting the information-sharing requirements for participation in the VWP nor complying with the agreement on enhancing cooperation in preventing and combating serious crime.

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