Foreign students could be tracked

By BRIAN FEAGANS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/13/07

Georgia colleges and universities would have to keep closer tabs on foreign students under a homeland security bill filed this week in the state House.

Institutions of higher learning would have to keep student visas on file, track any changes in immigration status and bar students with expired visas from attending class under the bill sponsored by state Rep. Burke Day (R-Tybee Island). Foreign students who accept admission but never enroll would have to be reported to state and federal authorities. So would those foreign students who drop out of school or fail to show up for seven consecutive days of class.

"The idea is to use the university systems themselves as the keeper of passports if you will," said Day, chairman of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee. "The fact is we live in a different world now."

Officials with the state's university system were still trying to digest the proposal Friday, including how much additional work it would require, said John Millsaps, a spokesman for the Board of Regents. They plan to work with Rep. Burke to address his concerns, Millsaps said. "We are pretty much first and foremost an educational institution," Millsaps said. "But we absolutely are also concerned about student safety."

Universities are already required to submit information about foreign students to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, created after one of the bombers in the 1993 attack on the World Trade System was found to be in the United States on a student visa. They report when a student fails to enroll as expected, according to the Institute of International Education in New York, as well as any address changes.

But Day's bill would go a step farther, forcing universities to sound the alarm if a student's wherabout are unknown for seven consecutive days of class. "If you say you're going to visit family over spring break and two weeks later you're not back, there needs to be an immediate response from the college," Day said.

University of Georgia officials declined comment. No one was available to comment at Georgia Tech, a spokesman said.

The federal government is good at documenting when someone using a student visa enters and exits the country, said Day, a former police commissioner. But there aren't enough controls in place to prevent visa holders from using their student status as cover to plan or execute a terrorist act, he said.

The Georgia Homeland Security in Education Act would help by forcing institutions of higher learning to tip off authorities when people using student visas disappear from campus, Day said.

Institutions that fail to notify the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) would risk losing state funding and state-administered federal funding.

They also would have to make records available for review by the GBI and state attorney general.

The act would apply to all public and private universities, colleges, junior colleges, technical colleges and flight schools.

 

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/legis07/stories/2007/01/12/0113metlegvisas.html