-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
US may freeze student visas for six months CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA TIMES NEWS NETWORK ASHINGTON: The United States may impose a six-month moratorium on inflow of foreign students into the country following the September 11 terrorist attacks. The measure is among the most extreme being considered in view of the growing feeling that terrorist organisations are using the student visa route to infiltrate the country. Other steps being considered include mandatory fingerprinting and a 30-day waiting period for foreign student visa applicants in their home country to enable a background check before the entry is cleared. The United States issues nearly 500,000 student visas each year. The top inflow is from Asian countries such as China (about 40,000), India (35,000), South Korea, Japan and Philippines. A significant number come from Arabic and Middle-East countries. Post September 11, the view in the Congress has dovetailed with the belief of the more hawkish sections of the administration that the student visa system is fraught with loopholes and not sufficiently monitored. Even before the carnage, the Immigration and Naturalisation Services (INS) was tightening student visa prodecures. That included a $95 fee that foreign students would have had to pay to finance the $43-million effort known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Program which would have enabled stricter monitoring. But the move was being strongly resisted by critics within and outside Congress who felt argued that it could subject foreign scholars to discriminatory treatment and place additional bureaucratic burden on universities. Post-September 11, such opposition has collapsed. "We recognise the futility of continuing to advocate for our position" against the project, Victor C Johnson, director of public policy for the Association of International Educators was quoted as telling the Los Angeles Times. "We just felt it was not appropriate . . . in the aftermath of Sept. 11." "I think the [higher education] groups won't like it. But on the other hand, there has to be a recognition that we're a sieve," Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has mooted the six-month moratorium, told the paper. "These are new days, and the nation's security and the security of millions of people depend on our system functioning." Following the September 11 attacks, federal investigators have swarmed all over US school and college campuses, seeking details of foreign students, especially those from the Middle-East. Reports speak of dozens of students from Arabic countries abandoning their studies and leaving for home. But Indian students seem relatively unaffected although there are stray reports of other Indian professionals, including doctors, encountering some hostility. "So far we haven’t had any instance of racial profiling on the campus. But reports about the six-month moratorium are true, then it could affect students coming for the Spring semester," Gopi Rethinaraj, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign (UIUC), said. UIUC is one of the biggest campuses in the US and its 36,000 student population typically has upwards of ten per cent Indians. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
