 "Photo:")
Before Zara Brown, a landscape architect graduate assistant, left her home in Jamaica to study at the University, she paid to register in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.
SEVIS is an electronic data-collection system for storing and managing information about international students who live in the United States.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. government has increased efforts to keep track of foreign-born students studying in U.S. higher education institutions.
The USA Patriot Act of 2001 amended section 164 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act to require full implementation of SEVIS.
The system was implemented August 1, 2003. More than 5,000 higher education institutions use the system.
According to the Institute of International Education, more than 560,000 international students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities during the 2004-2005 academic year.
The U.S. federal government monitored each international student through information stored in the SEVIS database.
Even though she does not know how the system works, Brown said she understands the desire for the United States to protect itself.
"One has to understand that the country feels vulnerable letting in all kinds of people," Brown said. "They have to put in some kind of system to monitor those who are coming in now."
Chris Bentley, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services spokesman, said SEVIS existed well before 9/11, but the terrorist attacks were the basis for accelerating SEVIS to an electronic program.
Melita Bizette, SEVIS compliance coordinator for the University's International Service Office, said the system keeps track of biographical information such as addresses and names. The program also stores information on majors, coursework and dates of entry and exit into the United States.
Bentley said all students wanting to study in the United States must be registered with the system.
Students must pay a $100 non-refundable fee separate from the visa fee to the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency when they are issued an Form I-20 or DS-2019.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site, the fee is used to maintain and update SEVIS, hire and train staff, support the Student and Exchange Visit Program office and maintain enforcement of the program.
Larry Wortzel, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review commissioner, said SEVIS essentially is a system for monitoring.
"The United States has every right to know what foreign nationals are doing inside its borders," Wortzel said. "It is perfectly fair to ask if you are doing what you said you are coming here to do."
But not everyone agrees with Wortzel. In fact some argue whether the SEVIS system is fair to international students.
A Matter of National Security
SEVIS is a matter of security for Wortzel.
During a September 2005 Immigration, Border Security and Claims subcommittee hearing on foreign relations, Wortzel said an enhanced SEVIS can allow information to be sorted faster and allows the process to move quickly.
"I think that we have appropriate agencies in the government that they could look at that, and then if there's a reason to raise concerns about what's going on, they turn it over to another agency or counterintelligence agency," Wortzel told the committee.
He expressed the same sentiment during an interview with The Daily Reveille.
"The U.S government has a responsibility to be able to keep track of all foreign nationals in the country," he said. "It is helpful to track them like that. A high percentage of U.S. nationals come here and go to their universities and disappear."
According to the Center for Immigration Statistics, this is what happened in 1993 when Eyad Ismail entered the United States on a student visa.
Ismail did not attend classes at Witchita State University like he was suppose to do, according to the CIS.
On Feb. 26, 1996, Ismail drove a truckload of explosives into the World Trade Center, killing at least six people.
Brown, who is from Jamaica, said it is unfortunate that all international students have to pay for the actions of others.
"Unfortunately for those of us who are honest and law-abiding, we have to pay for the actions of those who take too much advantage of a system meant to help us better ourselves," she said.
United States versus the world
While Harald Leder, interim director of the University's Academic Programs Abroad, said that while SEVIS enables the government to monitor students, it is also making life more difficult for international students.
They have to be cautious about not getting out of status, Leder said.
He said SEVIS ties international students to the campus where they attend school.
"It is not as easy to enroll in other universities as it used to be," he said.
International students who fall out of compliance with the program can suffer dramatic consequences such as deportation.
"I would submit to you that almost all of them never intend to do anything illegal, but the system looks at them just strictly as any potential troublemaker," Leder said.
But Wortzel said the government has a right to monitor these students since it has granted them the visa to attend school within its border.
"It is not up to the student to make a decision about what he or she wants to do. They are not American citizens. They applied to come to the United States," he said. "I don't feel bad for those students at the universities. If they don't like it, they can go somewhere else."
Leder said positions like Wortzel's could eventually be harmful to the United States.
The United States can no longer assume students will continue coming here if they keep telling them to go home, Leder said.
International students translate into research and resource, he said, but competition from other countries are drawing students away from American universities.
The best and brightest international students now have more options, Leder said. Telling students they can go away if they do not support U.S. policies could be dangerous.
A November 2005 "Open Doors" report from the Institute of International Education supports Leder's claims.
The report found that international student enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities experienced a slight decline.
According to the report, the decline can be attributed to increasing U.S. tuition costs, recruitment efforts by other countries and perceptions that it is more difficult to come to the United States.
The report also noted concerns among foreign students about difficulties in obtaining student visas.
"If we no longer import people, we will no longer be the top nation in the world," Leder said.
Conversion Rates
Zowril Razik, industrial engineering senior from Sri Lanka, said he did not think the SEVIS process is a hassle because it was a part of the visa process.
Like Brown, Razik said he understands the reasons the government is tracking students.
Brown said she paid for SEVIS before she left home but never took it out of the packet.
"It was never asked for, and I wondered if I really needed it," she said in an e-mail.
And Brown said the system does not intimidate her.
Like Brown, Razik said he understands why some students would feel uncomfortable with the program, but he also understands why the government tracks students.
Other students said the same, but they also said the $100 non-refundable fee is what bothers them most.
SEVIS directly charges the non-refundable fee to students, Bizette said.
Venkata Chakka, mechanical engineering graduate student, said the fee is a burden.
"I don't know what they will do with the money," he said.
Chakka, who is from Andhara Pradesh, India, said students are not reimbursed if their visa applications are rejected.
Contact Alexandria Burris at aburris@lsureveille.com
Be the first to comment on this article!