AMONG many new measures to try to curb the threat of terrorism in the United States, President George W. Bush has announced his support of restrictive legislation on student visas. Although this legislation has good intentions, these restrictions will not have much impact due to the sheer magnitude of foreign nationals inside the United States for reasons other than study. If passed, the legislation instead would serve to decrease the number of foreign students who will want to study in American universities.
The proposal calls for a national tracking system that will require foreign students to have their finger and palm prints checked at airports and border crossings. Also, each university will be responsible for ensuring that foreign students actually are attending school. No one can accurately estimate how these policies will affect foreign students, but it probably will make it more difficult for them to obtain visas and may discourage them from trying. Already, the number of international students applying to the University has decreased so far this year.
It is understandable for lawmakers to want to try to keep out terrorists by any means they can. One of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Hani Hanjour, entered the country with a student visa but never showed up to begin his studies. Yet, there is no indication that putting restrictions on student visas would be effective at deterring the entrance of foreign terrorists. All of the 19 hijackers entered the United States legally, and only one came in with a student visa.
In fact, international students are a minority of foreign nationals in the United States, as compared to the number of people here for other reasons. In 1999, 31.4 million foreigners were given visas to enter the country. Of those, only 514,723 were student visas ("University Officials Worry Crackdown Will Target Global Students," www.cnn.com, Nov. 8). That is roughly 1.6 percent of foreigners who are in the United States legally. It is illogical to think that cutting down on such a small percentage of legal aliens will be able to stem the inflow of terrorists.
Another factor to blame for the terrorists' entrance onto U.S. soil is the relatively lax visa policies that are in place. Although citizens of certain countries, particularly those that had been identified as state sponsors of terrorism, are scrutinized in great detail, certain other countries such as Saudi Arabia are deemed to be low risk areas in which to issue visas. According to The Washington Post, only 3 percent of Saudi citizens had their applications for visas rejected because they were deemed to be potentially dangerous ("15 Hijackers Obtained Visas in Saudi Arabia," Oct. 31). Saudi citizens requested visas through U.S. consulates and most were let in without interviews. Fifteen of the 19 terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks came in through Saudi visas, although not all of them were Saudi Arabian citizens. Apparently, these 15 hijackers were run through computerized background checks which turned up negative.
Unfortunately, terrorism is such a global phenomenon that the United States should expect terrorists to enter the country from any area. If there is any way to get into the country, the United States should assume that terrorists will find a way. They have proven their ingenuity and resourcefulness and have the single-minded goal of completing their mission.
Measures must be taken to improve the security involved in granting visas. More in-depth background checks must be made, because the current ones are not effective. Internal security agencies such as the FBI should be more watchful of any suspicious activities of foreign nationals, as in the case of the terrorist who never showed up to the college he had gotten a visa to attend. Although colleges might be required to keep track of their foreign students, the FBI has the resources and jurisdiction to monitor suspicious behavior on an national level.
It probably would not be practical to have a high cost system of monitoring every foreign student and foreign national at all times. As the terrorists of Sept. 11 have shown, terrorists can be good at keeping low profiles. Because of this, monitoring every foreign national would be of little use and that money would be better spent in keeping track of verified suspicious activity inside the nation.
Putting restrictions on student visas will do very little to solve the United States' internal terrorism problem. This policy probably would make it more difficult for international students to come to study in the United States. This could hurt the quality and prestige of American institutions that pride themselves on offering cultural diversity and also most importantly international students, who are themselves looking to get a good education.
(Alex Rosemblat's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at arosemblat@cavalierdaily.com.)
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