Posted on 09/26/2001 6:39:45 PM PDT by freedomnews
Edited on 07/06/2004 6:36:34 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers from both parties are pushing for background checks for foreign visa applicants and a sophisticated tracking system once they arrive.
Dozens of those detained for questioning about the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings had violated immigration rules, and many are charged with overstaying visitor or business visas.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
That sets the rules for all these bill in the house.
David Dreler is the chairperson on the rules committee.
He is also CFR Counsel on foreign relations.
No More Entry?
Student Visas
BY ANDREW GOLDSTEIN AND JODIE MORSE
Last year, like more than 500,000 other foreigners, a man named Hani Hanjour used a student visa to enter the U.S. He had been accepted to an intensive English course run by ELS Language Centers at Holy Names College in Oakland, Calif., where the basic admission requirement is ability to pay the $1,325 fee. When classes began last November, Hanjour didn't show. Immigration officials, who rarely track the whereabouts of student visa holders, had no idea where he was. The FBI now believes he spent much of his time in San Diego and Maryland, trying to hone his flying skills. But it appears that he resurfaced two weeks ago. It was a man by the same name who piloted American Airlines Flight 77 into the west wall of the Pentagon.
Foreign students have become big business for American colleges. They not only help the schools achieve their diversity targets, but they also nearly always pay full tuition. In California alone last year, 66,000 foreign students paid colleges nearly $700 million in tuition and fees. But after the terrorist attacks of two weeks ago, the open door may start closing. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, suggested a six-month moratorium on the issuance of student visas. Even the American Council on Education,{U.N N.G.O}
a lobbying group that represents most of the nation's colleges, recognizes that student visa policy will have to change. Says senior vice president Terry Hartle: "We all realize the government will and should be looking at this now."
To win a visa, a foreign student must be accepted by an American college, then pass a cursory interview with a consular official. About 35% get rejected. But once foreign students get to the U.S., there is little attempt to track them. Remarkably, the INS still communicates with colleges via paper and pencil. That should have changed after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, in which the driver of the explosives-filled van was in the U.S. on an expired student visa. In 1995 Congress ordered the creation of a database of all foreign students; colleges would have to tell the INS if a student moves or drops several classes or even switches majors.
It was colleges, not wanting to be turned into agents of the government, that lobbied successfully to delay the measure: implementation is not scheduled until 2003. At the end of last week, though, the Association of International Educators,{U.N N.G.O}
which has loudly fought against the database, reversed its position. Just not in time to stop Hani Hanjour.
(From MSNBC Website AP Story)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/630118.asp?cp1=1 Under current law, any non-U.S. citizen who poses a security risk to the United States can be deported, but hearings before an immigration judge are generally required when the government seeks to deport a foreigner.
Under a 1996 law, the INS is allowed to arrest, detain and deport non-citizens on the basis of secret evidence whose source is not revealed to the non-citizen or his or her counsel. But in a deportation hearing, that evidence is reviewed by an immigration judge.
Dianne Feinswine knows something is politically uncorrect and is still for it??? Pigs are flying somewhere in this world...
IT'S ABOUT TIME WE CONTROLLED OUR BORDERS AND IMMIGRATION!!!!
Pushing? Why in the hell are the borders not completely sealed? What is there to debate about? Why is this even something to talk about in Congress? Am I missing something? What could these folks in Congress be considering? Isn't it a no-brainer to seal the boarders and patrol every inch with armed soldiers with orders to shoot on the spot anyone coming across the border who skips around the checkpoints? Again, am I missing something here???
Are my eyes deceiving me or what?
When I see how slowly our government is moving, I can hardly believe it. Is it because we have already been compromised so who cares? Why aren't we having security checks as people board trains?
We've seen how these Muslim terrorists are able to forego high-tech in favor of very simple means of accomplishing their demonic purposes. Without any kind of security how easy it would be for them to turn a bus into a weapon of mass destruction. Please let's get a move on and make some common sense moves for homeland security.
The point that you are missing is---you can't put armed soldiers on the border with orders to shoot the very people that these polititians are pandering votes from. I hope this clears things up for you. /sarcasm
In view of this sudden turnabout by PRC Feinstein, I can only conclude that the Bush administration is recruiting freedom-loving Chinese from Taiwan to come spy on the PRC students and scientists here.
LOL! The name fits!
When is the next Mars probe scheduled for blast off?
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