Washington – Five U.S. senators are calling for a federal crackdown on what they say are phony colleges handing out student visas to potential criminals and terrorists.
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Sens. Diane Feinstein (FINE-stine) of California, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Bill Nelson of Florida and Charles Schumer (SHOO-mer) of New York say the colleges are fronts for people who pay to illegally enter the United States.
The Democrats are calling on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security to share information that could help identify the fake colleges.
The senators note several of the Sept. 11 terrorists entered the United States on student visas. They also cite recent incidents in California and in Florida where schools have been accused of being involved in the illegal visa scheme.
“Sham universities are not real institutions of higher learning, but rather operate solely for the purpose of manipulating immigration law to admit foreign nationals into the country,” the senators stated in the letter released Sunday. “When the student visa program can be manipulated by bad actors, it threatens the viability of the entire program for the large majority of bona fide participants.”
The senators will ask the federal departments to determine “high-risk factors” within 90 days and conduct site visits at schools that show a high risk factor through data — or the lack of data — that legitimate schools must provide to the federal government. The senators also seek stiffer penalties for “sham universities” that engage in student visa fraud.
“The existing penalties for student visa fraud are simply too low to deter bad actors who can reap large rewards by operating for-profit sham universities and charging foreigners thousands of dollars to come to the United States,” the senators wrote. “These new penalties will assist you in obtaining justice for the bad actors who compromise the system.”
There was no immediate comment from the federal departments.
I realize that this story was taken straight off the AP wire, but I think we can take it as obvious that we know how to pronounce the various politicians’ surnames!
To be serious, though, this story may have implications for American batei medrash. Taking the British Border Control Agency as an example, many non-European yungerleit have had their visa applications to study in UK yeshivot and batei medrash rejected. The same goes for bochurim wanting to enter the UK to marry British girls.
This is a by-product, if you will, of preventing militant Moslems from entering the United Kingdom. Similar action may (and will) be taken by the American immigration authorities.
Sad, but true.
The distinction between a “real university” and a “sham university” is accreditation from a recognized organization. Before this criterion is applied to yeshivot and batei medrash, we should proactively establish appropriate accrediting bodies for the benefit of both yeshivot and students.