by Rebecca Cooper
Arts & Entertainment
The Immigration and Naturalization Service’s attempts to track foreign students and professors at schools across the country are still insufficient, according to a report released last week by the United States Department of Justice.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the INS was criticized for not keeping proper track of international student records. In May 2002, Congress expanded the reporting and tracking requirements of the INS and gave it funding to implement a computerized system.
“The legislature approved implementing a computerized system to keep track of international students after the first (New York) World Trade Center bombing back in 1993,” said Phil Hofer, University of La Verne director of the International and Study Abroad Center. “But no one ever did anything about actually getting the funding or the technology to the INS.
“After two of the Sept. 11 suspects were found to be here on expired student visas, the system was put on a furious fast track,” he said.
The computerized program, approved for use by the INS, called the Student Exchange Visitor Information System, was put into affect January 2003.
Any school that wants to enroll international students or exchange students and professors is required to register these individuals on the SEVIS system by Aug. 1, 2003.
Although the system has been put on the fast track, and progress is being made, the Department of Justice still sees room for improvement, according to the report.
Problems the report found included not reviewing school applications for SEVIS usage in a timely manner.
The report also found that the INS is not doing enough to check internal records and the records of schools complying with the SEVIS system.
The biggest problem currently facing the INS tracking, though, is the fact that student data will not be included on the database until Aug. 1, which causes inadequate monitoring until that date, according to the Department of Justice.
More than 3,000 schools have been approved to use SEVIS.
“The report also talks about the lack of training about how to use the system,” Hofer said, who keeps track of the University’s 192 international students. “We basically had to train ourselves how to use the system. In order to understand the system better, we have read published information about the SEVIS system, attended a workshop and subscribed to online message boards.”
After an international student is admitted to a U.S. school, they receive an I-20 form from the school’s admissions office. These forms are used to gather information from international students. This information includes name, home and school addresses, phone number, year in school and expected graduation date, Hofer said.
The basic individual data, which has been gathered from all “F” (nonimmigrant students) and “J” (exchange students, educators and researchers) visas since 1954, was once gathered on paper at regional offices, but is now placed on the national, computerized SEVIS system, according to the INS website www.immigration.gov.
Nonimmigrant undergraduate students are required to take 12 credits a semester, and graduate students must enroll in six credits a semester to remain in the country.
“If the student takes less than the minimum or has a reportable action, then we are required to report it in the SEVIS system,” Hofer said.
Reportable actions include committing a crime, change of address, termination of studies, application for work permission, transferring schools and a number of other actions international students might take, Hofer said.
Law enforcement officials like the FBI, the CIA and other national and international agencies are also required to submit information to the database about international students, according to the website.
