Foreign Students Scrutinized

A controversial plan to more closely monitor foreign students in the United States is slowly advancing inside the Immigration and Naturalization Service, with congressional opposition largely collapsing in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The long-beleaguered project to establish a computerized system for tracking the half-million foreign students in this country had faced fierce opposition in Congress, where critics complained that it could subject foreign scholars to discriminatory treatment and saddle universities with new red tape.

But the terrorist attacks have transformed the issue, allowing for the system to be implemented by the end of next year if the INS is able to surmount the technical challenges. Bush administration officials plan to disclose more details soon, including a $95 fee that foreign students would pay to finance the $43-million effort, known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.

“We recognize the futility of continuing to advocate for our position” against the project, said Victor C. Johnson, director of public policy for NAFSA: Assn. of International Educators. “We just felt it was not appropriate . . . in the aftermath of Sept. 11.”

As part of the government’s sweeping investigation of the attacks, federal agents asked colleges across the country this week for lists of foreign students and confidential student records that are normally protected by privacy laws. Members of Congress, meanwhile, sought to clamp down on student visas, which are one of the ways in which terrorists have been able to enter the United States, and demanded more thorough background checks on those who wish to study in this country.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is proposing a six-month moratorium on foreign student visas to give the INS time to get an effective tracking plan running. In addition, she would have the INS monitoring system include fingerprint data and require the immigration service to conduct comprehensive background checks on foreign student applicants before the State Department can approve visas.

“I think it’s controversial,” Feinstein acknowledged of her proposed six-month moratorium. “I think the [higher education] groups won’t like it. But on the other hand, there has to be a recognition that we’re a sieve. These are new days, and the nation’s security and the security of millions of people depend on our system functioning.”

Similarly, Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) said schools should be held more accountable for foreign students they sponsor who may violate the terms of their visas. He would mandate a 30-day waiting period for foreign visa applicants, giving U.S. embassies and consulates time to do more thorough background checks. He also called for tamper-proof visas and better record collection on visa holders inside the United States.

“Right now we have no ability to identify, locate or remove foreigners who deliberately remain in this country long after their tourist or student visas expire,” he said.

While hardly foolproof, the emerging INS plan is considered far more efficient than the current system, in which immigration officials might never learn that a foreign student had changed his major from, say, political science to nuclear engineering or had quit school altogether.

Information such as when someone applies for a visa, when they depart their home country, legal problems they may encounter inside the United States, their U.S. school and address and a change in course of study--all currently handled through uncoordinated paperwork--would be rapidly available to government officials.

Scope of Investigation Concerns Institutions

Still, the INS effort has many skeptics who are quick to point out that the immigration service has had several years to perfect the program but little to show for it beyond a limited test involving a handful of Southern colleges.

“It’s one of those things that you look at and you say, why haven’t they done this? And the more you look at it, the more depressed you get,” said Patrick Clawson, research director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

On another front, federal investigators continued their extraordinary inquiry for information from colleges about those who are studying inside the United States.

Many colleges have complied, saying that the exceptional nature of the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks and the need to prevent further terrorism warrant a waiver of normal privacy rules.

But the broad scope of some of the requests--several schools have been asked to produce lists of all foreign or Middle Eastern students--is raising concerns among education officials, student groups and others about students’ civil rights.

Federal investigators have requested information from dozens of institutions nationwide, according to college administrators and national education groups. By Friday, those included many University of California campuses, several Cal State campuses and other public and private institutions across the country, officials said.

The requests began after investigators learned that at least one of the hijackers and others believed to be linked to them entered the country on student visas or, even without visas, attended classes at various colleges.

Under the federal privacy law that governs student files, investigators are required to present a subpoena or receive student or parental consent to obtain any student records apart from basic directory information.

Since the attacks, however, the U.S. Department of Education has informed campus officials that an emergency health and safety exception to privacy laws allows them to release confidential records to investigators, a department spokeswoman said.

The Education Department “has been advising colleges that the health and safety exception does apply and that we advise and encourage them to cooperate,” said Lindsey Kozberg, a department spokeswoman. About 30 colleges have called for guidance on the issue since the attacks, she said.

The FBI has declined comment on this or other aspects of the investigation.

Student and education groups said they understand the need for the investigation and want to cooperate. But they expressed discomfort with the scope of the probe and concerns that anti-terrorism legislation now under consideration could give investigators even greater access to confidential records.

Middle Eastern Students Targeted, Schools Say

Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Assn. of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, said his group has received calls from many of its members. Often, he said, the requests from FBI and INS agents have gone beyond what registrars feel is appropriate.

“To whatever extent our members have felt the requests are not simply knee-jerk but represent actual leads, they’ve felt OK and almost patriotic about helping,” Nassirian said. “But when the requests involve long lists of students with foreign names, they’re afraid of joining a mass hysteria against certain groups.”

Corye Barbour, legislative director for the U.S. Student Assn., which represents student governments at more than 150 colleges and universities, said she was especially concerned about “blanket requests” at Cal State Fresno and elsewhere.

“We want to be sure that any investigation is done in a fair way and that it doesn’t disproportionately target particular communities, especially Middle Eastern students,” Barbour said. “Our feeling is that no line has been drawn yet to limit the investigation.”

Investigators had contacted many of the nine UC campuses, and university officials were consulting with attorneys on how to respond, said UC spokesman Chuck McFadden.

Officials from six Cal State campuses--Dominguez Hills, Hayward, Fullerton, Pomona, San Bernardino and San Diego--have been asked for records for specific students, a spokeswoman said. Cal State Fresno, however, was asked to produce the records of all 736 foreign students in attendance, spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler said.

In all cases, she said, campus officials have complied, handing over records without subpoena. “It’s an extraordinary situation, and we have cooperated with investigators as best we can.”

FBI investigators also have spent days poring over student files at the San Diego Community College District, spokesman Barry Garron said. “On Sept. 13, they came in with subpoenas with specific names, then came back on the 14th with more names and came back again the following week.”

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Peterson reported from Washington and Trounson from Los Angeles.