Enemies of the State Were Educated in the U.S.

The roster of detainees from the war in Afghanistan housed at Camp X-Ray in Cuba has some surprising members - individuals who came to the U.S. on student visas. While investigating the nationalities of the 300 detainees sent to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, the Miami Herald interviewed U.S. servicemen. The soldiers told the paper that several of the men in detention had attended U.S. universities, and one identified himself as a “Badger,” referring to the University of Wisconsin.

“That’s the kind of ironic thing about it. They don’t mind criticizing us but they don’t mind coming here and getting educated,” Army Lt. David Walters said.

The presence of al-Qaeda or Taliban detainees being alumni of U.S. schools raises troubling questions about other, undiscovered abuses of the student visa system. At least one of the Sept. 11 terrorists came to the U.S. on a student visa, and several of the terrorist pilots were admitted on specialized education visas. The INS has admitted that it has no way of knowing whether students are actually attending classes, or even whether they’ve left the country. Yet almost 6 months after Sept. 11 reform of the system remains bogged down.

The problem of terrorist misuse of the student visa system was not unknown prior to Sept. 11. In 1997, Middle East expert Hillary Mann wrote that foreign students posed a security risk not only because of their immediate potential for terrorist activity, but for their potential utility to hostile regimes developing weapons of mass destruction. The head of the Iraqi nuclear weapon program, for example, was educated in the United States.

Although colleges and universities were quiescent about reform in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, they had successfully delayed implementation of the system nationwide several times. Lately, they have again begun efforts to frustrate implementation of a system that would track student visa holders in the U.S. Heavy lobbying by higher education groups caused Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to abandon her idea of a temporary halt to all student visa issuance until a new tracking system could be brought on-line. And the higher-education lobby has argued that foreign students should not have to pay any additional fees to cover the cost of the new system; they say it’s wrong to make foreign students pay for a system that doesn’t benefit them personally.

Colleges and universities in the U.S. are increasingly dependent upon foreign student tuition as a profit center. Foreign students often pay full tuition, and are ineligible for most financial assistance. So-called “open-admission” schools specialize in attracting foreign enrollment. All totaled, foreign students represent revenue of over $11 billion in tuition and housing expenses per year.

The INS is moving ahead with plans to expand the Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) nationwide. Congress gave the agency an additional $36 million in October to fund that expansion. The INS says that the system should be working by January 2003. But until this system is implemented, the INS will remain “vulnerable to both inaccurate data and fraud at various stages” of the student visa application process, according to Congressional testimony by INS Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael Bercraft.
Source: Miami Herald, February 21, 2002.

FAIR 4/02