6,000 Mandhi Galantu Anta

[mrindia]

WASHINGTON, DC — In a major lapse that poses security threats to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has lost track of more than 6,000 foreign nationals who entered the country on student visas, overstayed it and then vanished.

All of them were on a list of people who were of ‘heightened concern’ to DHS officials.

DHS officials disclosed the breadth of the student visa problem submitted as part of an investigation into persistent complaints about the nation’s entry program for students.

Immigration officials have struggled to keep track of the rapidly-increasing numbers of foreign students coming to the US on F-1 and other visas, now in excess of one million each year. The immigration agency’s own figures show that 58,000 students overstayed their visas in the past year.

Of those, 6,000 were referred to agents for follow-up because they were determined to be of heightened concern.

According to Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla, since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, 26 student visa holders have been arrested in the US on terror-related charges.

Tightening up the student visa program was one of the major recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission, after it was determined that the hijacker who flew Flight 77 into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had entered the US on a student visa but never showed up for school.

The report also pointed out that despite repeated concerns raised by Congress, federal immigration officials have also continued to grant schools certification to accept overseas applicants even if the schools lack accreditation, state certification, or any obvious measure of academic rigor.

There are now more than 9,000 schools on the government approved list. The list includes such top flight American colleges as Harvard and Yale, but it also includes 86 beauty schools, 36 massage schools and nine schools that teach horseshoeing. Foreign students can enter the US on a visa to study acupuncture, hair braiding, or join academies that focus on tennis and golf.

Once the student arrives in the US, it is up to the schools to keep track of the visa-holder’s whereabouts, and report to the government if they repeatedly miss class. A number of for-profit schools appear to have been operating with a primary goal of selling visas, not educating students, said the report.

Thomas Kean, 9/11 Commission Co-Chair, says that the government is yet to address the security gaps the program has created. He said he was stunned the federal government continues to lose track of so many foreign nationals who had entered the country with student visas.

He noted that, even before the 9/11 terror attacks, federal officials had been aware of the gaps in the student visa program. The man who drove the van containing explosives into the World Trade Center garage in 1993 was also a student visa holder who was a no-show at school.

The effort to expand options for foreign study appear to be prevailing. According to figures gathered by congressional investigators, the number of foreign nationals obtaining visas to study in the US has grown from 662,966 in 2003 to more than 1.2 million in 2012.

 

source: hiindialive dot com

[ManOnFire]

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