Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Justice Department Report Calls New Database for Tracking Foreign Students Inadequate By BEN GOSE Washington The U.S. Justice Department released a report on Monday that calls the government's current system for tracking The full text of report, "The Immigration and Naturalization Service's Contacts With Two September 11 Terrorists," is available online at the Web site of the Department of Justice. It can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader, available free. foreign students inadequate and says that a new computerized database designed to improve monitoring won't be ready by the January 30 deadline. The report also says that the new database, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), will be an advance for the beleaguered Immigration and Naturalization Service, but "will not solve the problems of the ... tracking of foreign students." The INS must first recertify the 70,000 colleges and schools that enroll foreign students, and ensure that college officials know how to use SEVIS and that immigration officials know how to analyze the information derived from it, the report says. Attorney General John Ashcroft requested the report, assembled by the department's office of the inspector general, to investigate why the immigration service had sent visa-approval notices to two men some six months after they were believed to have flown hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center. (See an article from The Chronicle, March 22.) The report calls for formal training programs for college officials who are responsible for complying with the immigration service's new record-keeping requirements. It also says that the agency must figure out a way to ensure that information in the database is accurate. "To date, the INS has not formulated any concrete plans for conducting or requiring verifications of the accuracy of the data that the schools enter into SEVIS," the report says. The report details several additional problems that have nothing to do with the SEVIS delay. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials who review the certification of colleges seeking to enroll foreign students "do not adequately review the schools' applications," the report says. What's more, many colleges continue to issue I-20 forms, which indicate that a foreign student has been accepted for study, even though they no longer have federal approval to do so. "The INS's prevailing philosophy in dealing with foreign students ... before Sept. 11 was that students were not a concern or a significant risk worthy of special scrutiny," the report says. College officials have complained that they will have a difficult time meeting the requirement that they begin using SEVIS by January 30, 2003, given that many questions remain about how the system will operate. Background articles from The Chronicle: New Reviews Planned for Visa Applicants Who Want to Study Sensitive Subjects (5/17/2002) Colleges Say Proposed Rule Sets Unrealistic Timeline for Setting Up Foreign-Student Database (5/13/2002) Visa Flap Renews Calls for INS Database (3/22/2002) U.S. Is Urged to Give More Details on Database for Tracking Foreign Students (2/8/2002) Proposed Rules on Foreign Students Leave Many Colleges Worried (10/26/2001) Easy-to-print version E-mail this story

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