For a more extensive statement from NAFSA's Executive Director and CEO, Marlene M. Johnson, click here.

FOREIGN STUDENT MONITORING AFTER SEPTEMBER 11
A NAFSA STATEMENT

September 20, 2001

NAFSA has been a leading opponent of the national foreign student tracking system known as CIPRIS (now termed SEVP by the INS).  We have recognized the need for more efficient and effective reporting mechanisms, but have argued that there are better and worse ways to achieve them.  We have felt that the very complex and expensive system being developed by the INS under 1996 legislation constituted an unreasonable barrier to foreign students who seek legitimately to pursue their higher education in the United States, and an unnecessary reporting burden on colleges and universities.  We have also disagreed strongly with the assumption that foreign students – one of the smallest categories of nonimmigrant visitors and already among the most closely monitored – should be singled out for special tracking.  We have not abandoned this position.

However, if the United States Congress can cease debate on the many divisive issues that consumed it before September 11, surely no less can be expected of us.  Accordingly, we will no longer oppose the foreign student tracking system that is being implemented by the INS.  The time for debate on this matter is over, and the time to devise a considered response to terrorism has arrived.  We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this response with the administration and Congress.
 
As our nation considers an appropriate course of action, we at NAFSA will continue to uphold and to vigorously advance our deeply held belief that openness to foreign students and scholars fits squarely within the national interest of the United States.

For a more extensive statement from NAFSA's Executive Director and CEO, Marlene M. Johnson, click here.