Schools Have to Hand in Security Homework
Colleges, language schools and other educational institutions with large numbers of foreign students must comply by today with new federal rules requiring such students to be registered in a centralized database run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Immigration officials said nearly 6,000 schools have met the Aug. 1 deadline, but about 600 others -- mainly smaller institutions -- have not.
They warned that foreign students arriving in the United States to enroll in fall classes may now be turned away if their schools have not complied.
Starting today, immigration representatives will be at eight major airports, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, to provide information to try to sort out problems with the new system.
“We’re trying to avoid turning around legitimate students who have a small paperwork problem,” said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The new tracking system was approved by Congress several years ago but was jump-started only after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Immigration officials and higher-education representatives said the attacks highlighted serious flaws in the nation’s system of screening applicants and monitoring foreign students already in the country.
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