INTERNATIONAL EDUCATOR ASSOCIATION PROVIDES COMMENT TO INS ON STUDENT TRACKING SYSTEM TIMELINE, IMPLEMENTATION

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2002 – NAFSA: Association of International Educators today released its comment letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding proposed regulations on the implementation and timeline for the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).  The proposed rule, published May 16, would establish a mandatory deadline of January 30, 2003, for schools to be reporting under SEVIS. 

In a statement, NAFSA Executive Director and CEO Marlene Johnson said:  “Colleges and universities across the country are committed to the speedy implementation of an effective student tracking system.  They are working extremely hard to get ready to fulfill their obligation under SEVIS: that of reporting information into the system. But let us be clear:  Reporting information is not the problem.  Schools have been reporting information on their international students for many years and can today provide to the INS whatever information it requests. Our goal is to move that reporting into the modern age with an electronic system for data collection. The Attorney General is charged, under the law, with developing and implementing that electronic system.  It does not yet exist.  The Justice Department’s own Inspector General has stated that it is not likely to be fully implemented by the proposed deadline.”

“This is a massive and complex technological undertaking.  Our concern about the proposed rule is that it sets up the expectation that schools will report under a system by a certain date, before the agency charged with setting up that system has fulfilled its legal obligation to create it.  We recognize that the INS is under enormous political pressure, but the fact remains that such an expectation is simply impossible to meet, despite the best intentions of the schools.  What’s more, flipping the switch before the system is ready is a recipe for system failure, and that will not contribute to anyone’s security.  Accordingly, we ask the INS, in our letter, to reconsider its decision to set a deadline for full reporting before it knows when such reporting will be possible and instead to establish that deadline in a separate rulemaking, once it has completed the system and made a realistic determination of when full reporting will be feasible.”

NAFSA’s comment letter is available at:  

http://www.nafsa.org/content/publicpolicy/NAFSAontheIssues/NAFSAcommentlettermain.htm

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