Thread: U.S. has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign students who came study

U.S. has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign students who came study to then took jobs

By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Sunday, March 9, 2014

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  “The problems with [optional practical training program] are extensive and serious. The ...more >

The federal government has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign students who came to the U.S. to study and then took jobs, often in violation of the terms of their visas, according to a new internal audit.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t even consistently collect information or have the tools to monitor all of the foreign students who take part in the optional practical training (OPT) program, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report released late Friday.“The problems with OPT are extensive and serious.

The report not only calls into question the department’s oversight of the program, but also whether such lack of oversight is a serious national security risk,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who released the report, said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

Officials who run the Student and Exchange Visitor Program have deemed OPT to be a low-risk program, but the new findings suggest that may be wrong.Immigration agents told investigators they view the program as a gateway to illegal immigration, since students who are approved are allowed to work not just during their time in school, but also for up to 29 months after they complete their studies.

The agents said that since those students no longer show up for class, both the government and schools have a tough time monitoring whether they are complying with the terms of their visas by working within their field and going home when their time is up.Indeed, a high percentage of student records don’t even list an employer’s name.Some concerns raised by investigators about the program were deemed too sensitive to release to the public, and they were redacted from the 46-page report.

Homeland Security officials agreed with the six recommendations investigators made, and said they’ve already taken some steps to find missing documents.Officials also said they will finish a full risk analysis of schools that may pose a risk of problems by Sept. 30.OPT was designed to allow foreign students to gain some work experience in their field of study while they are in the U.S.

The program allows students to stay for a period of time even after they have completed their study — 14 months for most students, but up to 31 months for those in science, math and technology fields.As of late last year, about 100,000 of the 1 million foreign students in the U.S. were approved to take part in OPT.GAO investigators said they found thousands of students whose records show they stayed beyond the time limit.

Their report lists a number of pieces of information that federal authorities don’t accurately track for all students in the program, including employers’ names; whether the job is actually related to their field of study; and job start date and duration.

“By collecting the appropriate information in SEVIS and monitoring such information for compliance, ICE may better position itself to determine whether foreign students approved for OPT are maintaining their legal student visa status while supplementing their education with employment directly related to their areas of study in the United States,” investigators said.

“Moreover, having more complete data in SEVIS on foreign students working under OPT could help strengthen ICE’s efforts to identify and assess potential risks to OPT.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz2vaxAGb8H

March 10, 2014 3:33 pm
BY: Elizabeth Harrington
The Washington Free Beacon

DHS cannot account for 48,642 foreign students


Chinese students wait outside the U.S. Embassy for their visa application / AP

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cannot account for nearly 50,000 foreign students taking advantage of a student work visa program, according to a new report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Friday.

The program is a threat to national security and vulnerable to potential terrorists, said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), who asked the GAO to review the program.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), allows individuals on student visas to remain in the country to gain work experience in their chosen fields. However, due to inadequate oversight at DHS, the government has no idea whether 48,642 foreign students are working or not.

Thirty-eight percent of the 126,796 students currently approved for “optional practical training” (OPT)—which allows them to stay in the country up to two and a half years after completion of their studies—cannot be accounted for because their records contain no employer name.

Grassley sent a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday asking for an immediate moratorium on the program until its problems are resolved.

“The federal government does not know where tens of thousands of foreign students in the OPT program are located, who they are working for, or what they are doing while staying in the United States,” he wrote.

“The problems with OPT are extensive and serious,” Grassley said. “The report not only calls into question the department’s oversight of the program, but also whether such lack of oversight is a serious national security risk.”

Participation in the program has skyrocketed since 2008, from 28,497 students in 2008 to 123,328 in 2013.

Students are also rarely denied due to “ineligibility or fraud.” ICE denied only 12,643 foreigners between 2008 and 2013, 2.2 percent of the 581,869 applications the agency received.

Both Grassley and the GAO referenced terrorist attacks that have been linked to the government’s visa programs.

Senior officials from the Counterterrorism and Criminal Exploitation Unit warned the program is “at risk for fraud and noncompliance, in part, because it enables eligible foreign students to work in the United States for extended periods of time without obtaining a temporary work visa.”

“At least one terrorist, Faisal Shahzad, a foreign national from Pakistan, may have utilized OPT prior to planning out an attempted terrorist attack on U.S. citizens in Times Square, New York,” Grassley said.

“While it is difficult to know how many other potential terrorists may have exploited OPT to remain in the United States, it is clear that the program requires an immediate overhaul before another potential terrorist exploits it,” Grassley added.

The GAO cited the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks, and the Boston Marathon bombing last year, which “drew renewed attention to the need to further enhance the monitoring of foreign students.”

SEVP officials within ICE claim that the program is “low-risk” because it provides an employer benefit, though they currently have no system in place to ensure that those participating are meeting the program’s requirements.

In order to receive extended legal status, a student must be working in a field related to the subject they were admitted to the country to study on their student visa. However, GAO found cases where nursing students were working in pizza parlors, in violation of ICE’s rules.

In another case, an application for a music major who was working in a restaurant was approved because he was a “member of the restaurant’s house band.”

The agency also does not keep records of when students begin working.

“ICE does not require that students and school officials report this information,” the report said. “Without these data, ICE cannot determine whether students with employment authorization are working in jobs related to their studies and not exceeding regulatory limits on unemployment.”

Grassley said the report’s findings are “all the more disconcerting” since GAO has warned ICE about the program’s failings since 2011.

“The OPT program, which has never been approved by Congress, was created to allow foreign students to obtain temporary work in their field of study,” he said. “It was created to be a benefit to employers and students alike. Yet, due to gross lack of oversight by DHS, foreign students can be undetected from enforcement.”

To date, officials have “not identified or assessed risks associated with OPT,” including potential fraud and noncompliance with government regulations.

According to the report, ICE is in the “early stages” of developing a “risk scorecard” to determine whether universities are abiding by the program’s rules, following up on a previous GAO recommendation issued in June 2012.

http://freebeacon.com/student-visa-p...al-terrorists/

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March 13, 2014 | By Zach Rausnitz



Foreign students who remain in the United States after completing their studies under a temporary work experience program often don't report their employer's name or start and end dates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

These gaps in data makes it difficult for ICE to see whether beneficiaries are abusing the system to remain in the country, finds a report from the Government Accountability Office.

The recently released report, dated Feb. 27, says that in ICE's database of about 127,000 foreign students approved for the optional practical training program, 38 percent do not have the name of their employer in their records. ICE also doesn't require that students submit the start and end dates for their jobs. These gaps prevent ICE from ensuring compliance, the report says.

Under the program, students' jobs must relate to the subject area they studied, but ICE does not demand proof of that. So even when students list their employer's information, the agency may not be certain that the job qualifies for the program.

GAO's auditors found 35 cases where students in the program were working in food service despite receiving degrees in unrelated fields including economics and psychology. In nine other cases, students with degrees such as computer science and engineering had jobs in retail.

http://www.fiercehomelandsecurity.co...nts/2014-03-13