Friday, October 26, 2001

Int’l students’ past subject to INS searches
By Sarah McClellan
Staff Reporter

Immigration and Naturalization Services will implement a database tracking the background of international students, while American students do not face such scrutiny because of protection under federal law.

Laws that protect students’ privacy don’t apply to international students, said Eyleen Schmidt, an INS spokeswoman.

Schmidt said the Coordinated Interagency Partnership Regulating International Students (CIPRIS), a pilot-program designed to collect information on international students without their consent, was developed as a pilot program in 20 higher education institutions.

U.S. citizens are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which states the “eligible student shall provide a signed and dated written consent before an educational agency or institution discloses personally identifiable information from the student’s education records.”

Previously, international students had assumed privacy rights under FERPA, Schmidt said. However, new immigration laws would create programs that would provide governmental agencies with background information without forcing the U.S. attorney general to obtain a subpoena.

The program will be implemented as the Student Exchange Visitor Program in December of 2002, as a result of an anti-terrorism bill the Senate passed Thursday, Schmidt said.

Schmidt said INS will collect visa information from the Department of State, such as addresses, date of arrival, degree plans and credit hours, as well as information on people who don’t show up for classes, change their major or drop out.

That information will the be forwarded to the INS where it will be compiled into the SEVP database.

“We’re not sure yet how this information will be used,” Schmidt said. “We’re working with Congress and educators to outline the protocols of what (information) we’re looking for and what to do with it.”

Manochehr Dorraj, an associate professor of political science who specializes in international politics, said the program could be misused.

“The immigration office being able to track every international student is acceptable,” Dorraj said. “But an intrusive monitoring of their lives would be objectionable on the grounds of their civil liberties. I don’t like the idea of treating every international student as a terrorist, if that’s what it would entail.”

Dimitar Petrovski, a freshman business major from Sofia, Bulgaria, said the database will be a way to spy on international students.

“It’s unfair to focus on student visas,” Petrovski said. “We come (to the U.S.) to study, not terrorize.”

CIPRIS was designed to provide INS with information on international students in response to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. One of the men involved in the bombing was in the country on a student visa, Schmidt said.

Last month, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, (D)-Calif., proposed a six-month moratorium on issuing new student visas as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The Pentagon also put pressure on INS to finish the CIPRIS database, said Jim Hock, press secretary for Feinstein.

One of the Sept. 11 hijackers was in the country on a student visa, ABC News reported.

Hock said INS was “charged by Congress” in the Immigration Reform Act of 1996 to set up this database.

“(She dropped the proposal because) she’s been assured by education and university officials that they’ll make sure they provide the INS information to get the database, or tracking system, on foreign students up and working,” Hock said.

John Singleton, director of international student services, said the database will be a good system if its purpose is to track an international student’s travel and not their personal lives.

“I am afraid they will do more than simply monitor the travel of students with that system,” he said. “It will be used to store information on international students regarding anything the government wishes to collect.”

Petrovski also said the program will make it harder to attain a student visa, but it won’t affect the number of foreign students that come to the U.S.

“Even if they spy on me, I don’t mind,” Petrovski said. “I don’t have anything to hide, and it might make everyone feel safer.”

Sarah McClellan
s.l.mcclellan@student.tcu.edu