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SWEENEY
CLAMPS DOWN ON STUDENT VISAS
Washington- With the recent disclosure that at least one of the
terrorists suspected in the September 11 attacks on New York City
and Washington, DC entered the United States with a student visa,
Representative John E. Sweeney (R-NY) has authored tough, new
legislation designed to close the loopholes that allowed such a
gaping defect in the nation's immigration tracking system.
Hani Hanjour, one of the terrorist hijackers targeted by federal
law enforcement authorities as a central figure in their
investigation, entered the U.S. on a student visa and remained in
the country to apparently plot the September 11 attacks-despite the
fact that he failed to even contact the school he was supposed to
attend.
Sweeney called the lapse a "stunning blunder that should have
been avoided."
"Clearly, a system that allows foreigners to easily obtain
student visas and then travel the country plotting a terrorist
attack without so much as raising a warning is a system that cries
out for a serious overhaul," said Sweeney.
Sweeney's bill calls for the establishment of a Department of
Justice-administered "alien nonimmigrant student tracking system"
designed to provide information-relevant to national security
concerns-on foreign students to the proper federal authorities.
Current law does not provide for a permanent, nationwide system to
account for the status and whereabouts of foreign students in the
U.S.
Under Sweeney's proposal, the United States Attorney General, in
consultation with the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization
(INS) and the Secretary of State, would be authorized to collect
information regarding the school where foreign students enroll and
notice of any termination or transfer from that school. Authorities
would also be allowed to track foreign students' program of study,
as well as its status and completion date while also tracking
residential and employment records of the student.
The bill gives the Department of Justice 180 days in which to
establish the nationwide tracking system upon the legislation's
passage. If the system cannot be fully implemented to track all
foreign students nationwide, the Attorney General is directed to
focus the tracking system on students whose visa applications
declare a residence in a country or countries considered to be
"supportive of international terrorism."
The National Commission on Terrorism, a panel created by Congress
two years ago after the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa,
released a report in June 2000 endorsing a tracking system applied
to international students.
"We believe that if (our recommendations) are followed, Americans
will be safer from terrorist attacks here and abroad," commission
Chairman L. Paul Bremer said at the time of the report's
release.
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