Congress mulls revising immigration rules for foreign students.

Since several of the 9/11 terrorists had been found to have entered the country using foreign student visas, Congress has focused millions of dollars on the question of student visas.

In 2002, the computerized information system known as SEVIS was devised. SEVIS tracks foreign student activity and makes their personal college data accessible to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2003, the "MANTIS" program was revised to increase restrictions on foreign scholars in "sensitive" fields such as nuclear engineering. In 2004, the Intelligence Overhaul Law required that all visa applicants be interviewed--including returning foreign students whose visas had expired.

In November 2004, the International Institute of Higher Education reported a 2.4 percent drop in the total number of foreign students attending college in the United States, marking the first foreign student decline in over a decade. Many higher education officials fear larger decreases in the future, blaming stricter visa regulations for the decline.

"I think it's just a continuing fallout from 9/11," said Gigi Do, coordinator for the International Initiatives Office of the Houston Community College System. "Students are just not being let in. Students from overseas are telling us the consulates are being very subjective," said Do.

Do's experience highlights one of the major issues in the ongoing debate about the visas.

"Ninety percent of the denials of foreign student visas are based on Section 214B violations of the Immigration and Naturalization Act," said Stewart Verdery, former assistant secretary of Homeland Security. Section 214B refers to the visa-holder's intent to use the visa to abandon his or her homeland.

The managing director of the State Department's Visa Services Directorate, Stephen Edson, repeated the point in March during an "International Students Tracking Progress Report" hearing before the House Education and the Workforce subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness.

Foreign students have not been regularly monitored in more than a decade, giving the students the ability to stay in the United States long after their visas have expired.

But immigration is increasingly becoming a central issue in the post-9/ll world. According to Randolph Hite of the Government Accountability Office, the biggest problem facing immigration authorities is students staying in the country after graduating from school.

"More than 50 percent of international undergraduate students stay on after their studies," said Mary Jacobs, director of the Office of International Students and Scholars at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002. And, more than 70 percent of foreign graduate students stay on five years or more after their studies, according to a recent Chronicle of Higher Education chart. Many of these students stay legally, either by marrying an American, getting a special work waiver, securing a temporary H1B work permit or winning a lottery. But many overstay their visas and become illegal aliens. "The Compliance and Enforcement Unit [part of ICE] identifies between 1,000 to 2,200 foreign student violators a week through SEVIS," Victor X.

Cerda, acting director of the Office of Detention and Removal at ICE, told the House committee last March. "To date more than 130,000 students and exchange visitors have been identified as having potentially violated their nonimmigrant status," he said.

During an April press conference, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wondered aloud why foreign students shouldn't immigrate to the United States. And, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind., has said, "Foreign students give back to us for their educations, and American colleges depend on them for their revenue and their abilities in math and science."

Those arguments are making an impact around the Capitol, as some Senators have begun discussing the possibility of making long-term permits available to foreign students.

"When I was president of our state university system, I urged Congress to give all the Chinese engineers and scientists coming to study here permanent immigration permits," said Sen.

Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., at a recent press conference. "I thought that could do for U.S. science what the German scientists did for nuclear studies during WWII."

In February, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., introduced legislation to "facilitate U.S. openness to international students." Coleman's proposal includes language that would effectively eliminate the restrictions placed on foreign students by Section 214B.

By Margaret Orchowski