Action Alert: Feinstein Proposal

Talking Points for Messages to Congress

Call or fax your Senators and Senator Feinstein and convey the following points:

1. You are strongly opposed to any blanket freeze on student visas because it will not make any difference in preventing terrorism, but instead it will undermine the nation's long term strategic and economic interests.             
2. You strongly support the Senator's plan to revise the CIPRIS payment system in a way that will eliminate the administrative problems that have plagued this system from the beginning.      
3. You strongly oppose new unrealistic administrative burdens that would unnecessarily slow down an already overburdened visa system and strongly support increased funding for consular posts to help fight terrorism. 

Below is further information on each of the talking points above:

1.  We oppose a blanket freeze on international student admissions:

• The number of international students is small when compared with total number of aliens who get visas to enter the US every year.  International students represent only 1.8 percent of the 31 million foreign citizens who obtained visas and entered the United States in 1999, according to the most recent data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).   Limiting student visa holders alone will not do anything except to deny these individuals the chance to study at an American college. To make a difference, any changes or modifications to the visa system must affect all visa recipients.        
• The international exchange of students and scholars enhances global understanding. Such efforts are in America's long-term strategic and economic interests.  This would be the worst possible time to reduce the opportunities for foreign students to study here.  In light of recent events, we need more international education, not less.        
• These are the world's best students, who come to the United States to attend the world's leading universities. They return to their home countries as ambassadors for personal freedom and democracy.   They often work for American companies abroad.  They help create a market for American goods and services in foreign countries.   United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, and Mexican President Vicente Fox all attended American universities.      
• Senator Feinstein's proposed moratorium would have disastrous consequences for colleges and universities, many of which have significant international student populations.   It would delay or prohibit an entire entering class of international students.  If the US option is foreclosed, many of these students will study in other countries where they will be welcomed. International students contribute more than $12 billion to the US economy, along with vast uncounted contributions of study, research, teaching perspective, and cultural enrichment.  Economically, California *alone* reaps more than $1.5 billion from more than 66,000 international students.  A moratorium would also wreak havoc on graduate schools, which rely heavily on foreign students and scholars to help teach and conduct research.       
• There is no way that the full development of the tracking system and ability to detect violators can be accomplished in six months.  It will be at least a year but probably more before the tracking system is fully operational.  Either there is no point in the moratorium, or it would have to last for years. 

2.  We support full funding of INS tracking system:

• We support the electronic reporting on foreign students once they are in this country -- including a properly funded electronic CIPRIS database.   The INS CIPRIS/SEVP/SEVIS program is objectionable *not* because of data collection: it is objectionable because of the cumbersome, convoluted *fee collection* process to fund the program.  Proposals like Senator Feinstein's to address the problems associated with fee collection are welcome and will facilitate the implementation of this system. 

3.  We oppose adding ineffective administrative burdens and instead encourage you to increase support for consular posts charged with screening visa applicants:

• Senator Feinstein’s assertion that the student visa program is 'one of the most unregulated and exploited visa categories” is erroneous. Contrary to the Senator's statement, foreign students are among the most scrutinized group of nonimmigrant visa holders.  In fact, college and universities have long been required to maintain certain information on foreign students and to provide it to the INS on demand.  It is unfair and a misguided notion to label foreign student visa applications as the problem.      
• We oppose unrealistic new admission procedures.  Senator Feinstein has proposed unrealistic admission procedures which would require foreign students to submit visa applications to both the INS and State Department and would require the INS to conduct comprehensive background checks. The INS already has serious problems with the backlogs of application processing; additional processing would paralyze the system  and create an unworkable timetable for the institutions admitting foreign students. To wreak more havoc on an already inoperable processing proposal, the INS would be required to do a background check on hundred of thousands of students each year.  A proper 'comprehensive background check' has the potential to take years.  The implementation of new proposed admission procedures is unrealistic for the INS to achieve and if enacted, would cause the United States to lose foreign students to the many other countries who recognize their value.       
• We also support increased funding for the hiring of additional consular affairs officials overseas.   Many US embassies lack the staff to enable them to review all visa applicants thoroughly.  The Department of State - not colleges - issues visas and this agency ought to have the resources to ensure that all visa applicants - regardless of the type of visa they have - are carefully reviewed.