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U.S. Launches Tracking System for Foreign Students
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| Washington
University in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the several hundred
college programs that will use the SEVIS system
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WASHINGTON
, July 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service has implemented an internet-based tracking
system to monitor foreign students and more easily catch those who
violate their visas, officials said Tuesday, July 2.
The
Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, which
started operating Monday, July 1, is the first step in the
government’s plan to track the movements of all those with temporary
visas and is part of Washington’s effort to boost surveillance of
visitors to the United States, according to INS officials, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Schools
hosting foreign students are required to enroll in the system by
January 30, 2003
, forcing them to prove they are able to provide the education those
students entered the
United States
to receive. By January 30, schools not approved to use the Web site
will not be allowed to admit international students.
“SEVIS
promises to revolutionize the way information about foreign students
is shared between schools and the INS,” INS Commissioner James
Ziglar said.
Some
660,000 foreigners held visas to study in the
United States
last year, and many are able to elude efforts to police their
activities.
Earlier
this year,
U.S.
lawmakers mandated better tracking by 2005 of the 35 million foreign
visitors who land in the
United States
annually, in the wake of deadly terror attacks September 11 by
foreigners who entered the
United States
legally.
In
addition, 41 of the 47 foreign-born individuals who were charged,
pleaded guilty or were convicted of involvement in terrorism on U.S.
soil in the last 10 years had been approved for a visa by an American
consulate overseas.
Terrance
O'Reilly, commissioner of the INS’s field service operations
department, stated, "We are going to make sure that those who
enter our country to attend a college, actually do what they have
agreed to do."
“This
is about guaranteeing that our foreign students live up to their
bargain and don't head off to places unknown.”
Schools
will use the system to alert immigration officials of the status of
foreign students, including anything that might violate their visas.
They must also report whether foreign students make any shifts in
their field of study. If a student begins taking courses in subjects
that might provide useful information to terrorists - such as
chemistry or nuclear physics - INS officials might also make
inquiries.
In
past years, foreign students that were accepted to more than one
American college switched colleges once they arrived. Others simply
disappeared while in the
United States
, reports news agencies.
Schools
that have received INS permission to accept foreign students for three
years can begin using the web site system immediately; other schools
will have to go through an extended review period, proving they have
the programs and policies in place to provide the education that a
foreign student has applied to receive, to gain approval to use the
system, reports news agencies.
One
college administrator said she looked forward to using the system,
even though at first she found it difficult to master.
“When
all the kinks are worked out, it’s going to be better, because it
will offer us a better way of keeping track of them ... I’m kind of
excited about it,” said Peggy Hudson, enrollment director of Lewis
and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois, which has 10 foreign
students.
However,
schools with large foreign student populations preferred to wait until
the system can accept hundreds of records simultaneously - right now
records must be entered one-by-one on the site.
“We’re
dealing with about 2,200 people - 1,200 students and 1,000 scholars -
and so the only way we can do this is through the batch process,”
said Kathy Steiner-Lang, director of the Office for International
Students and Scholars at
Washington
University
in
St Louis
,
Missouri
.
Despite
qualms from school administrators that their job is educating and not
policing, education trade groups and some members of the education
community have supported the program.
“We
think SEVIS is the single best thing that the government can do to
monitor foreign students,” said Terry Hartle, a vice president of
the American Council on Education. “It will not require the
collection of information than colleges and universities currently
collect. But all that information was on paper and there was no
possible way to get it to INS in bulk.”
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