STARTING on January 30, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) will require universities around the nation to submit detailed information about their foreign students, particularly those of Arab descent. This new Internet-based tracking measure, known as the Student and Exchange Visa Information Service (SEVIS), requires students to self-submit their information across a broad spectrum of categories, from academic to financial. This is part of a new initiative to track foreign citizens in an effort to filter out potential terrorists. However, this new SEVIS policy will not provide the INS with the information they need and will only serve to intimidate foreign students who are legitimately in the United States. The SEVIS policy should be ended.
The United States is and should be doing everything in its power to prevent terrorists from reaching our shores, as well as exposing those who are here already. However, SEVIS does not appear to be a policy that will add very much value to the United States' effort.
To begin with, SEVIS will in all likelihood not reveal very much useful information. Although a university should note if a foreign student is taking classes in sensitive subjects such as nuclear science, SEVIS will ultimately provide a wealth of worthless information to the INS. Because the vast majority of foreign students are not in the United States with nefarious purposes, the INS will have to sift through thousands of students' profiles to possibly find the few that are indeed here with unjust motives. With so much information on hand, it is even possible that the vital parts of data that could tip off a INS agent could be lost in the mix.
To make matters worse, SEVIS may do little or even nothing to detect potential terrorists. Because a terrorist doesn't want to be caught, it is safe to assume that hidden operatives would have fake background information that would be reported in SEVIS. Since students self-report their information, a sleeper agent would have considerable latitude to input their data, making a cover-up even easier to pull off. Although it is possible that terrorists will not report their actions and will stick out because of that fact, the Sept. terrorists were expert at unassumingly blending into the background. Theoretically, possible terrorists would probably comply with SEVIS in order to not stick out. Again, the inherent difficulties in evaluating the records of the many foreign students will make detection of questionable sources difficult.
The federal agency responsible for keeping tabs on potentially dangerous elements should be the FBI. Screening of foreign citizens allowed into the United States should occur before the student even enters the country, when he is applying for a visa. Even if SEVIS finds a terrorist among us University students, it may be too late and that sleeper may have committed his intended acts. The FBI should be in charge of keeping tabs on foreign students, if there is reason to suspect them. The FBI already possesses a great deal of information on potential terrorists that are already in the United States. The money being invested in SEVIS could be better spent by the FBI, not to mention that SEVIS will probably not reveal much valuable information.As mentioned earlier, the percentage of students with hidden agendas, if there are even any presently in the country, is quite small. SEVIS' scope is simply too large to adequately detect these few culprits.
SEVIS' only success is in intimidating and inconveniencing foreign students. There are already reports of students being arrested by the INS for education-related issues, such as six students in Colorado who were arrested for not signing up for enough credits ("Foreign students fret over INS Tracking," CNN.com, Jan. 10). Foreign students now need to worry that if they accidentally don't take the required amount of credits or engage in a minor university offense -- perhaps even if they garner library fines -- they may catch the attention of the INS and be arrested. In this manner, SEVIS constitutes an invasion of privacy for foreign students and causes nothing but trouble.
Although it was enacted with the best of intentions, SEVIS will not be effective. The amount and type of information SEVIS gathers is too large and inconsequential to justify the effort in collecting it. The logic behind SEVIS is akin to trying to find a needle in a haystack. The FBI is much more effective in tracking terrorists and should be the only agency to keep tabs on the vital information pertaining to possible terrorists. Because of its ineffectiveness, the SEVIS registration plan should be scrapped.
(Alex Rosemblat's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at arosemblat@cavalierdaily.com.)
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