Act advocates reform of student visa policy

By Josh Wolf
Daily Bruin Contributor

As the United States works to decrease its vulnerability after
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is
asking the federal government for $32.3 million to reform the
student visa program.

Feinstein, who recently dropped a proposal for a six-month
moratorium on student visas, is proposing that the Immigration and
Naturalization Service conduct background checks on all foreign
students applying for visas, and that academic institutions update
INS regularly on the academic and disciplinary records of foreign
students.

Hani Hanjour, one of the suspects in the hijacking of American
Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon, entered the
United States on a student visa but never pursued his
education.

Some educators oppose the proposal, saying the new security
measures may deter foreign students from studying in the United
States.

“Our concerns are the message it might send to
international students,” said Larry Gower, director of the
Office of International Students and Scholars at UCLA.

Currently, 4,800 foreign students study at UCLA, Gower said.
Many of them coming from countries the United States does not
perceive as threats.

Concern about people on student visas is not new for Feinstein,
who has been working to create an electronic database to keep track
of foreign students since 1996, when such a system was mandated by
the Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act.

The act stated that the INS had to compile a computer database
to collect and verify information on foreign students by 2003,
replacing its paper filing system which is slow and difficult to
update.

“This has been a long-standing issue with (Feinstein); the
need has been crystallized by the Sept. 11 attacks,” said Jim
Hock, Feinstein’s press secretary.

Some educators protest there is no quick fix to the problem of
not being able to track people on student visas.

“A quick and easy response would be very difficult if not
outright impractical,” Gower said.

Feinstein, who places part of the blame for the security breach
that let Hanjour stay in the country on the outdated information
system used by the INS, wants to clean the system up to comply with
federal law and prevent further unlawful entries through the
student visa program, Hock said.

Feinstein decided to drop her proposed six-month moratorium
after it proved unpopular with many students and educators. A
letter from David Ward, the president of the American Council on
Education, urged Feinstein to focus her efforts in a different
direction.

INS statistics from 1999 show that about 570,000 people were in
the United States on foreign student visas, compared with 31
million people that entered the country using business or tourist
visas.

Since students make up less than 2 percent of foreigners in the
United States, according to Paul Hassen, assistant director of
public affairs at ACE, “it is unfair to single out students
when they represent such a small percentage.”

In his letter, Ward stressed the willingness of academic
institutions he represents to work toward improving the system for
keeping track of individuals in the country on student visas.

With this pledge, Feinstein dropped the moratorium from her
plan, and is now pushing for the computer database ““ known as
the Student Exchange Visitor Information System ““ with the
support of ACE.

“We have been in favor of the tracking system for a long
time,” Hassen said.

The new system would be Internet-based so the information could
be easily updated.

Elaine Komis, a spokeswoman for INS headquarters, said that
currently, information about students with visas is kept on paper
by academic institutions and is available to the INS upon
request.

“We’ve always required schools to provide us access
to information. (The new system) will provide current information
on students in the United States,” Komis said.

But implementing SEVIS will be a difficult task, and the total
cost might not be completely reflected in Feinstein’s
proposal.

According to Komis, the $32.3 million requested wouldn’t
cover the entire cost of implementing the new system. An additional
$1.5 million is needed to obtain computer software and equipment
for production processing at the Department of Justice, and $3
million is needed to reimburse U.S. Customs, State Departments and
INS for building their portions of the infrastructure.

Feinstein has requested that Congress set aside the funds in the
Emergency Supplemental Appropriations package.

Feinstein’s camp isn’t worried about funding the
project.

“We pretty much have good support in Congress to give INS
the resources they need,” Hock said.

According to Hassen, both houses in Congress have made efforts
to put money into the system.

But despite the renewed interest in the new system and the
support in Congress to fund the effort, Komis said the INS is still
only aiming to have the system running by 2003.