Perhaps one of the more surprising moves came from California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has introduced legislation that would impose a six-month moratorium on student visas while the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) reforms its student-visa program. “Today, there is little scrutiny given to those who claim to be foreign students seeking to study in the United States,” Feinstein said in a statement. “In fact, the foreign student visa program is one of the most unregulated and exploited visa categories …This may be controversial, but there has to be recognition that this is an unprecedented time in the country.”
Feinstein is hardly the first politician to call for changes to the student-visa system. Conservatives in Congress have long argued that some foreign governments have used the program as a cover for espionage. But Feinstein is hardly a conservative, and her proposals have caused a stir among immigration experts.
“How is keeping out foreign students going to make us safer when we let in 30 million visitors every year?” asks Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association. “It doesn’t make sense. Of course, a university should report if the student doesn’t show up, but what does that tell you? That he’s going to commit a heinous crime? Or was there a death in the family back home that prevented him from coming. Without better intelligence, all we’ll get is a glut of useless info.”
By intelligence, Butterfield means that there needs to be better sharing of information between the CIA, FBI and State Department so that American consulates–which issued the business, tourist and student visas used by the 19–have access to the latest “watch lists” of people who should not be allowed into the country. Yet Butterfield remains skeptical of other proposed legislation, like Missouri Republican Sen. Christopher S. Bond’s call for a two-week waiting period to give time to consular officials to investigate visa applicants. “No-one would have a quibble about a two-week delay, but are you going to do a deep investigation of a family that wants to visit Disneyland? If so, that involves cooperation from the local government [in a visa applicant’s home country.] There are no foolproof ways to see what’s in someone’s heart if they don’t show up on a watch list, as many of these alleged perpetrators did not,” says Butterfield. “But we can be smarter, we can take the information we have and apply it more widely and get it to consulates.”
Spokesmen for U.S. universities say don’t expect any slowdown in applicants. But, say officials, the proposed changes could affect their institutions as well as the students themselves. At research universities like Stanford and University of California, Berkeley, foreign students tend to be enrolled in graduate programs in science and engineering, where professors want the best and the brightest from around the world to serve as their teaching assistants and researchers. At smaller institutions that focus on undergraduate education, international students are a prime source of revenue because they’re less likely to receive financial aid from the U.S. schools they’ve enrolled in. Also, at state schools, foreign students must often pay the higher out-of-state fees. That’s part of the reason why many educational institutions and organizations have reached out to Senator Feinstein and others to ensure that the remedies legislated buy Congress are both reasonable and effective.
Ironically, many of those proposed INS remedies, intended to track the more than 500,000 foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities, were ordered by Congress in the wake of the 1993 bombing attempt on the World Trade Center. One new measure, expected to be implemented by 2003, will move the INS to a computerized database containing information about a student’s name, academic institution, major and attendance record. But so far, the electronic system hasn’t moved beyond a small pilot program involving a handful of Southern colleges. And in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Feinstein and others want to see these changes implemented quickly.
Academic institutions don’t dispute the need for student visa reform. But they disagree strongly with Feinstein that the solution should include a six-month moratorium on student visas, which account for just 2 percent of all visas granted. “It would be a bit of a moral victory for terrorists if we shut down the system that since World War II has created the best friendship structure abroad,” says David Ward, president of the American Council on Education. Ward argues that the F-1 student visa is among the most heavily scrutinized of all visas because students have to present credentials like transcripts and letters of recommendation from their home countries.
Ward is especially sensitive to this issue because he first came to the U.S. as a student from Britain, and he knows firsthand the importance of educating students from around the world. “Shutting out the best students from Russia, Taiwan and China sends the wrong message at a time when we’re trying to build a global coalition against terror,” he says. “Even the leadership of many countries in the world–King Abdullah of Jordan and the new president of Mexico [Vincente Fox]–have degrees from U.S. universities. In the final analysis, our security is paramount. But it has to be comprehensive, and not single out the group that has the best review process of any visa.”
Nor is a focus on student visas alone likely to have much impact. Barry Holtzclaw, director of media relations at Santa Clara University, says that out of his school’s 7,200 students, 850 are foreign nationals. But he stresses that many of those students are actually on work visas–they’re full-time Silicon Valley professionals who are taking part-time M.B.A., computer engineering and engineering management courses–and wouldn’t be subject to new scrutiny under the proposed legislation. “If they’re trying to spot sources of abuse of the visa system, they should look more broadly than student visas,” says Holtzclaw.
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says that Bush is “still committed” to liberalizing the Mexican guest-worker program. “It’s so important at all times to remember the things that make America strong, and immigration is one of them,” says Fleischer. “We can be a nation of immigrants, but we can also be a nation of laws. And we have to be both.” But given the slowdown in the economy, the cheap labor source that Mexican guest workers represent might not be as necessary as it once was. And with the thousands of layoffs that have come in the wake of Sept. 11, Bush may find it more of a political challenge than ever to keep his word.
