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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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Boston Globe
Tuesday, August 3, 2004
US security said to hurt foreign students: Educators seek easing of 9/11 crackdown
By Jessica E. Vascellaro, Globe Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- Leading educators called on the government yesterday to roll back new security measures they say have caused a substantial dip in the number of international graduate students studying in the United States.
Arguing that the visa process is bogged down by unnecessary interviews and repetitive checks, the educators said the restrictions implemented in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are crisis-driven and should be reconsidered.
"There is a life cycle to any crisis . . . but we now have to walk back from that," said Victor Johnson, associate executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
International applications to US graduate schools for the upcoming fall have dropped 32 percent from a year ago, according to the Council of Graduate Schools, an organization representing more than 450 universities in the United States. Citing the downward trend in applications since September 2001, Nils Hasselmo, president of the Association of American Universities, said the country has squandered its good will and competitive advantage by forcing international students to jump through bureaucratic hoops.
"We do appear to be losing our allure as the destination of foreign students . . . and the academic community is very concerned," he said. "In its own national interest, as well as in the interest of the global community, the US needs to make every effort to facilitate collaboration and exchange."
Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security, also expressed concern that the United States could jeopardize its status as the preferred destination of foreign students. He said that the Bush administration agrees "in principle" that the process needs to be sped up and said the Department of Homeland Security is working to "clear background checks in a more rapid fashion."
"We are working to educate them about how long it takes with the new procedures," Hutchinson said, adding that students and schools would have to readjust their expectations and plan ahead.
But more than two months after 24 representatives of national education organizations sent Homeland Security a series of recommendations for speeding up the application process, they are still waiting, Hasselmo said. The letter recommends that the department eliminate repetitive checks, allow individuals to begin the renewal process earlier, and create an expedited process for frequent visitors.
"The eminent scientist who comes to visit every year should not be treated as a stranger," Johnson said.
With Washington on alert after Sunday's warning of a possible Al Qaeda attack, Hutchinson opened his remarks by describing the government's new procedures for screening international students. After the revelation that Hani Hasan Hanjour, a Sept. 11 hijacker from Saudi Arabia, entered the country on a student visa, the government has placed thousands of students who apply for visas annually under unprecedented scrutiny.
"As we learned on September 11, not every foreign student is here to study the ways of America," Hutchinson said. "One of the lessons we learned is that our country can't afford going about business as usual."
Hutchinson said the Student Exchange Visitor Information Service launched 18 months ago has made the country safer by catching 1,600 visa violations and tipping off 155 arrests. The USA Patriot Act required that prior to receiving a visa, students must be registered by their schools into SEVIS, a computerized database for collecting and processing information about international students. Designed to replace the old paper system, the database was criticized by schools as a bureaucratic inconvenience, but now serves more than 700,000 nonimmigrant foreign students and exchange visitors across 7,318 institutions.
But Johnson said he doubted the new antiterrorist efforts would make the country safer over time. Calling the good will of foreign students "the most undervalued policy asset," he called on the government to design policies to keep enemies out and allies in.
"We must also facilitate access to those who are important to our security," Johnson said. "In totality, the controls we have put in place have hurt us."
Hutchinson also said that the country has a vested security interest in educating future world leaders and allies and that the United States would remain a "welcoming nation."
"Foreign students are the exporters of the American experience, and we must be fully committed to welcoming them," he said.
Jessica E. Vascellaro can be reached at jvascellaro@globe.com.
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