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Attention focusing on foreign students
Calls for closer monitoring clash with demands for privacy
09/25/2001
By LINDA K. WERTHEIMER / The Dallas Morning News
The terror attacks on America have increased scrutiny on more than 500,000 foreigners studying at U.S. colleges and will probably make it harder for others - particularly those from the Middle East - to study here in the future, school and government officials say.
The FBI, invoking a rarely used clause in a federal privacy act, already has asked some schools to turn over information on foreign students, and a bill in Congress would make it easier for government agencies to get the files of any student.
Some lawmakers also say they will push harder for implementation of a 1996 law that was supposed to create a national electronic monitoring system of all foreign students; the system now includes only 21 colleges and universities.
Some lawmakers say it's important to establish better monitoring of foreign students even though they make up a small portion - about 560,000 as of 1998 - of the 30 million total visa-holders in the country in a year. At least one of the terrorists in the Sept. 11 attacks is believed to have arrived on a student visa to attend flight school.
U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Antonio, said the first action ought to be to enforce laws, such as the 1996 measure, that are in place.
"I don't doubt now that the law will be enforced," said Mr. Smith, past chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims. "To not enforce the law now would be to jeopardize the lives of thousands of innocent people."
Detractors of the heightened measures, however, worry that increased security means eliminating foreign students' rights.
"It is going to erode the civil liberties of students on campuses nationwide," said Julia Beatty, president of the U.S. Students Association. "What it will lead to is increased racial profiling of students based on their ethnicity, particularly if they're Asian, Middle Eastern or Arab students."
At least 10 colleges and universities, prompted by FBI requests for student records, have sought guidance from the U.S. Education Department, spokeswoman Lindsey Kozberg said.
The department told the schools they should comply under a clause in the 27-year-old Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. Under the act, records may be released only with students' permission or with a subpoena, but the clause allows agencies to obtain the information in the case of a health or safety emergency.
Ms. Kozberg said the clause is rarely used.
'This is unique'
"This is unique in that it relates to the largest terrorist attack, the largest loss of life in the history of the United States," she said.
An anti-terrorism bill President Bush proposed would insert specific guidelines allowing government agencies to access foreign students' records if they suspect involvement in terrorism.
Under the 1996 law, colleges and universities are supposed to report whether visa-holders are enrolled, as well as their countries of origin and other information. The law, intended to replace a paper tracking system with a computerized one, was enacted because an accused participant in the 1993 Trade Center bombing was living in the United States on an expired student visa.
But the monitoring system has gone through several starts and stops since 1996. In February 2000, the program was put on hold because of the $35 million cost. The system is now in place at only 21 schools in the Southeast; the Immigration and Naturalization Service plans to require 12 Boston schools to start using the system this fall.
Immigration lawyers and the head of a group that had opposed the system said they're amenable to the idea now because of the terrorist attacks. But there is skepticism about whether increased monitoring will help, said Victor Johnson, associate executive director for public policy of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
"The idea that you can achieve any increment - any at all - to your national security by monitoring foreign students and not monitoring the other 30 million people that come in on other visas is absurd," Mr. Johnson said.
Mr. Smith said foreign students also can expect a longer process to get a visa. A Justice Department spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity also said there probably will be changes.
"The key is not to unjustly accuse anybody because of their nationality or country of origin and not to stereotype anybody," Mr. Smith said. "It shouldn't surprise anybody if folks coming from Saudi Arabia or Pakistan are subject to more scrutiny."
That doesn't comfort students or others who work with foreign students.
Faten Yassin of Lebanon, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Arlington, called the changes regarding student records racist.
"I like to have my privacy," she said.
But Mohammed Al-Mamani, president of the Muslim Students Association at the University of North Texas, said he doesn't object to the FBI or other agencies seeing students' records. Mr. Al-Mamani, who is from Jordan, is a doctoral student in political science.
"Most people from the Middle East know they're here as visitors, as guests," he said. "Therefore, they do not have the full rights and civil liberties that other citizens do."
Off-campus attitude
What bothers him and many students more, he and others said, is how they are being treated off campus. Around the country, Middle Eastern students reportedly are returning home out of fear of harassment and concern for their families. At UNT, two women who felt harassed left for the semester with plans to return in the spring, Mr. Al-Mamani said.
"Most people just cannot take the hate around them," he said. "They cannot feel secure any more. Part of their civil liberties has already been taken from them. They do not go out as often."
But neither he nor Redha Ameeri, an 18-year-old freshman at Southern Methodist University, intend to quit school. Mr. Ameeri, a Muslim from Bahrain, said some of his friends at other universities have returned home. He said he has had no problems at SMU.
"No, no way I'm going back," he said. "It's not normal. It's safe at the university. All the teachers are supporting us."
College officials said they are concerned about long-term effects from the crackdown. The Institute of International Education in Washington estimates that foreign students bring in $8 billion a year to the American economy.
One Texas Christian University student from Brazil has gone home out of fear, said John Singleton, the college's director of international services.
It's too soon to tell how much stricter the government will get, Mr. Singleton said. The FBI already makes two to three visits a year to TCU to see records, he said.
"Balancing liberty and freedom is one of those tough things that everybody has to do," he said. "I always come down on the side of freedom, so I would be attentive to my students to make sure there are no abuses."
The renewed attention to foreign students reminds universities of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Iranian students were the focus during the hostage crisis in Tehran.
"It was a conflicting experience for them," said Dyann Del Vecchio, a Boston lawyer who handles international student issues for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "We didn't go into this business to become INS enforcers."
The recent terrorist attacks, however, are so much more serious that it's hard to disagree with the requests for records, she said.
"It's not a nice thing to be targeted because of a club or a group you belong to," she said. "But we're dealing with issues of international security now. This is happening on our own soil."
Staff writers Toya Lynn Stewart, Michael A. Lindenberger and Shelly Moon contributed to this report.