Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced she will soon propose legislation to reform the U.S. student visa program. Included in the proposed reforms are a six-month moratorium on student visas and the implementation of a foreign student electronic tracking system.
The introduction of the new legislation comes in response to reports that a suicide pilot who crashed into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had entered the United States on a student visa. He was supposed to study English at Holy Names College in southern California but never arrived at the campus.
The reforms would be extensive and would include $32.3 million in appropriations to the Immigration and Naturalization Service so a new electronic student tracking system could be implemented.
The system, the Cooperative Interagency Program Regulating International Students, was implemented in 1996 as a pilot program in response to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Under the planned legislation, the United States would "expand [CIPRIS] so it would be nationwide," Feinstein spokesman Scott Gerber said.
In addition, a six-month moratorium would be imposed on the issuance of foreign students visas so that the INS could have time to develop its student tracking system. American students still could study abroad, and foreign students who already had visas to study here could do so.
Universities would be handed additional responsibilities if Feinstein's ideas are approved. Schools would have to sign an affidavit agreeing to comply with the terms of the foreign student program. They would also have to send quarterly reports to INS on foreign students, which include details about a student's academic status, courses taken, the date of visa issuance and expiration and any disciplinary action taken by the school as a result of crimes committed by the student.
We need "to ensure that people don't use our immigration laws to get into this country illegally," Gerber said. The soon-to-be-introduced legislation will be helpful because "we need to address loopholes in the system that exist."
"We are strongly opposed to any blanket freeze on student visas" but are in favor of reforms to the CIPRIS system, said University of Wisconsin President David Ward in a letter written on behalf of the American Council of Education. The letter is also endorsed by the Association of International Education Administrators.
According to INS data, only .04 percent of deportable aliens in 1998 entered the country on student visas, "making foreign students far and away the most law-abiding members of any other major visa category," Ward said.
I "support the positions of the professional associations of international education," said Rebecca Brown, director of the University's Office of International Studies.
The moratorium is "the wrong message to send to all of our allies," Brown said.
She also said she thinks the legislation, if passed, would have a "very negative effect" on the University.
University international students have divided opinions about the proposals.
The proposed measures "would be reasonable," said first-year College student James Forbes, who is from South Africa. "You'd have to expect something like" the proposed measures, he said.
But first-year College student Yelin Li, who is from China, said she disagrees. "I am very surprised by it and I think it's totally nuts."
It's a "great loss for some of the international students" and "a great loss to the U.S.," Li added.
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