Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company The New
York Times
December 15, 2001, Saturday, Late Edition -
Final
SECTION: Section B; Page 6; Column
4; National Desk
LENGTH: 517 words
HEADLINE: A NATION CHALLENGED: FOREIGN STUDENTS; College Officials Are Wary on Visa Enforcement
BYLINE: By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Dec. 14
BODY: Although college officials have publicly
promised to cooperate with a crackdown on foreign students who overstay their
visas, the officials are privately concerned that the effort may discourage
foreigners from applying to American colleges, where they represent an important
source of revenue and research assistance.
On
Wednesday, immigration agents in San Diego arrested 10 foreigners accused of
violating the terms of their student visas, after the
Immigration and Naturalization Service had compared visa and academic records.
About 90 percent of the students who had visas were attending classes, but 10
percent had apparently dropped out or finished their studies, yet remained here.
Officials said the arrests were not dictated by the
immigration agency headquarters in Washington. The agency has been under intense
Congressional pressure to close loopholes in issuing visas and tracking
foreigners, particularly students.
Separately, law
enforcement and immigration officials have been asking universities to help
locate students whose names are on a list of 5,000 foreigners that Attorney
General John Ashcroft's office wants for questioning. College representatives
have publicly said they had no interest in protecting students who might break
the law.
"Of course, we support the enforcement of the
law, and people who are found to be in violation of their visa status should be
subjected to the appropriate penalties," Victor Johnson of the Association of
International Educators said. "We do note that most of the students are right
where they should have been."
At the Colorado School of
Mines in Golden, I.N.S. agents interviewed five students from Indonesia, Iran
and Jordan, asking at least one of them whether any other international students
he knew might have violated the terms of their visa. The papers of the five
students were all in order, but the experience disturbed school officials on
some level.
"We're like most other schools," Anne
Walker, legal counsel for the college, said through a spokeswoman. "We're caught
between cooperating in national security efforts and laws to protect the
students privacy and, then, general concern for our students, too."
A higher education official familiar with international
programs said universities were deeply concerned by the array of measures that
threatened civil liberties and that might affect students.
"On Day 1, it's military tribunals," the official said. "On Day 2, it's
this list of 5,000. Day 3, no confidential conversations with lawyers, and on
Day 4, you're rousting them out of bed for administrative violations."
At Georgetown University, a spokeswoman, Julie G.
Bataille, said the university was "concerned about isolating specific students
on the basis of their nationality when that's so counter to our mission."
A government official said the immigration office in San
Diego began its effort by focusing on students from eight countries that the
Federal Bureau of Investigation has named as havens for terrorists, Afghanistan,
Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen.
Document 106 of 185. 