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Institute of International Education
809 United Nations Plaza
7th Floor
New York, NY 10017
USA
Tel: +1 (212) 984 5367
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Denver Post
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Foreign students facing scrutiny: Security agency mandates tracking
By Bruce Finley
Denver Post International Affairs Writer
The latest target in the Department of Homeland Security's widening hunt for potential terrorists: foreign students.
A new monitoring system that took full effect Aug. 1 is generating hundreds of leads for federal agents, Homeland Security officials say.
But the stepped-up scrutiny also is generating fears that foreign students, who now must sit for face- to-face interviews at U.S. embassies, may study in other countries instead. That could cost universities billions and deprive the United States of crucial influence as a higher education center for leaders worldwide. Since the end of World War II, U.S. universities have drawn growing numbers of foreign students.
This week, administrators at schools including the University of Colorado and University of Denver reported decreased foreign-student enrollment.
No comprehensive surveys of foreign students have been done on the topic, so the causes of any change in enrollment are unknown.
But local administrators and other experts blamed concerns about government monitoring and difficulty obtaining visas.
"To discourage foreign students from coming here is really to give up a key element of American leadership in the world," said Victor Johnson, policy director of the Association of International Educators in Washington, D.C.
"There's plenty of time to rethink this and realize we are bending over too far in the interests of keeping people out."
The monitoring and screening requirements were created because terrorists "will try a number of different mechanisms to get into the country," said Jim Chaparro, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement across a four-state region including Colorado.
Under the new system, universities must ensure that each foreign student enters personal information, including current home country and U.S. addresses, into a computer-based Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, monitored by federal agents.
Once student data are provided, agents in Washington cross-check it against other government databases. Since Aug. 1, hundreds of leads involving possible national security problems have been passed to agents around the country, Homeland Security spokesman Garrison Courtney said.
Previously, schools gathered this information, but immigration agents had to submit requests to review it. Now, if the schools don't comply, they can be barred from hosting foreign students.
The stepped-up screening of foreign students is necessary and should actually help draw legitimate students, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Chris Bentley said.
"Why should they feel less inclined to come to the United States? Does (the customs agency) now have real-time access to the information? Yes. Have we closed that loop so that we no longer have to make a request to the school to get information? Yes. But the SEVIS system is not a hindrance."
Yet school officials are worried about what is happening.
An estimated 582,000 foreign students were admitted to the United States last year - about 4.3 percent of total enrollment - including 6,692 in Colorado. This week, administrators reported an 8 percent decrease at CU-Boulder, a 25 percent decrease at CU-Denver, and a projected 10 percent decrease at DU. The DU figure is based on preliminary data. Aggregate national data are not yet available.
Universities increasingly count on foreign students. Last year, they contributed $11.9 billion to the U.S. economy in tuition payments and other spending, according to a U.S. Institute for International Education study. The estimated foreign student contribution in Colorado was $144 million, about $85 million of that in tuition and fees to schools.
Tensions are flaring as details of America's new requirements are hashed out.
For example, a proposal from Homeland Security officials that schools collect $75 fees from foreign students to help cover monitoring costs irks campus leaders.
"It's inappropriate for schools to be their bill collectors. We already collect their data," said Mark Hallett, director of international student services at Colorado State University.
School officials also demand that Homeland Security officials fix SEVIS glitches. Student information often doesn't reach embassies in time for student visa interviews, they say, and data entered under one school sometimes "bleed" in the system so that a student may appear to be attending a different school.
Recently, a Denver-based Homeland Security agent telephoned Michael Elliott, director of DU's international student office. The agent asked for help tracking down a Saudi Arabian student.
The student had failed to register with Homeland Security authorities as required under a separate, pre-SEVIS requirement for men from 25 predominantly Muslim countries, the agent said. These are countries where intelligence officials say anti-U.S. terrorists may reside.
Elliott knew that a registration deadline had passed and that helping the agent's inquiry might lead to the Saudi student's deportation.
Elliott asked the agent to submit a request in writing.
The agent said he could send a subpoena. Elliott took that as a threat.
No written request followed. Elliott declined to return two subsequent telephone messages.
Homeland Security's Chaparro said the agent finally located the Saudi student with help from officials at another school - the Community College of Denver. Agents questioned him, decided his failure to register was "an honest mistake," and let him go after he agreed to keep authorities informed of his whereabouts, Chaparro said.
DU officials say they are committed to complying with the new monitoring and visa requirements. The problem is staying competitive as universities in Australia, Canada and Europe increase their own efforts to be international centers of higher education.
"We are losing international students," said Ved Nanda, DU vice provost for internationalization, who is just back from a conference in Australia.
"Many of those who come here grow acquainted with American values. They go back home and become our very good friends, people we can rely on in other countries in our own interests. They can speak for us; they become our eyes and ears. It benefits the university and U.S. foreign policy ... This is not a very enlightened policy to scrutinize foreign students so intensely."
Foreign students say their views of America are changing because of the monitoring, difficulty obtaining visas and a general sense that people from predominantly Muslim countries are singled out as terrorist suspects.
Hesa al-Khalifa, 24, from Bahrain, said she would have studied in Britain except that she received a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship from the U.S. government to study at DU.
"My mom was worried that in the streets I'd be bugged, harassed physically and emotionally," she said. "There's a feeling of anxiety back home. Even my friends were trying to get me to stay. They were, like, 'Oh, you are so brave.' I mean, it was like I was going to Iraq."
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