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Student and Exchange Visitor Information System
- (SEVIS)
Legislative Goal
The American Camping Association (ACA) urges Congress
to repeal section 641 of IIRAIRA.
Background
Section 641 of IIRAIRA directs the Immigration
and Naturalization Service to establish a nationwide
system to electronically collect information relating
to all foreign students and exchange program participants.
The program, commonly known as SEVIS (Student
and Exchange Visitor Information System), is to
be fully operational by January 1, 2003. The impetus
for this legislation was an allegation that a
terrorist involved in the World Trade Center bombing
entered the United States on a student visa. Although
ACA supports necessary and effective counterterrorism
measures, we believe that increased monitoring
of foreign students and other exchange participants
will not prove effective and will in fact harm
U.S. national interests.
Under federal regulations, exchange programs,
colleges and universities have long been required
to maintain certain information on foreign participants
and students and to provide it to the INS on demand.
This information is scrupulously collected and
readily available to the government. To undertake
an enormously expensive, intrusive, and cumbersome
government initiative to duplicate what is already
taking place in the private sector is bad policy,
and will not increase U.S. security.
Specific Concerns
ACA strongly objects to this legislation, which
singles out foreign exchange participants and
students among all foreign visitors as the most
likely potential terrorists and which will have
a severe negative impact on U.S. exchange organizations,
colleges, and universities, and on American competitiveness
in the international student/exchange market:
- By erecting a self-imposed trade barrier,
the legislation will discourage foreign students
from coming to the U.S. and threaten our dominance
of the increasingly competitive international
student market. The half-a-million foreign students
who study in the United States every year constitute
a key foreign policy asset and a $12 billion
"trade surplus".
- The complex, user-unfriendly system for collecting
the fee from exchange participants will effectively
exclude many participants. Those without access
to the Internet, credit cards, and U.S. currency
will find it difficult if not impossible to
apply for a U.S. exchange visa. This will disproportionately
affect countries of the highest policy priority,
including China and the Newly Independent States.
- No refund will be given to students who must
pay the SEVIS fee to apply for a visa but then
are denied. This will create a serious public
affairs problem for the U.S., particularly in
countries like China with high visa refusal
rates.
- The program is being implemented with undue
haste. When insufficiently tested systems are
brought on line, the ensuing chaos could disrupt
American campuses, summer camps that depend
on foreign counselors, families counting on
au pairs, businesses expecting trainees, resorts
that depend on summer work exchanges and short-term
language programs that operate in a very competitive
international market.
Senator Judd Gregg proposed the repeal of section
641 in the 106th Congress. ACA urges the 107th
Congress to enact such a repeal.
Late last year, the Immigration and Naturalization
Services (INS) announced plans to extract a $95
fee from each non-immigrant foreign student in
the United States to help pay for its SEVIS initiative.
The new ruling will require schools and other
non-government hosts of F-1, J-1, and M-1 non-immigrants
to collect the fee and process the paperwork it
generates. In exchange, the INS will provide the
computer software. Individuals who have these
types of visa classification will be subject to
a fee when they first register in school or enroll
in a commerce exchange program in the United States.
Many camp counselors who come to the United States
on the J-1 visa for only a few months at a time
may not be able to afford the fee or want to pay
it. That means recruitment of camp counselors
will be made more difficult, and it raises the
specter of the camps having to absorb that cost
for each counselor as well as the cost for processing
the paperwork.
American Camping Association, along with our
legislative partner APCO Associates, recently
met with representatives of other organizations
affected by the new ruling. We agreed to file
letters in response to the INS proposal. The organizations
are united in their opposition. We will urge the
INS to modify the rule, allowing for an exemption
for short-term participants in the exchange program.
We will also protest the amount of the fee. The
original intent of the INS tracking program was
to track students who spend as many as four years
in this country attending school. The $95 fee
imposed on individuals over four years makes the
same fee imposed on someone here for four months
highly unfair and burdensome.
In addition to economic hardships and lack of
manpower, the benefit from the SEVIS program will
be minimal because by the time the information
is processed, the worker will be gone. ACA also
opposes this ruling because of the time frame.
The fee is effective retroactively to last year.
Many camps are currently recruiting for year 2000
staff without any mention of this fee.
Meetings have already been held with Congressional
staff and representatives of the INS. If we are
unsuccessful in getting a change in the ruling,
we will consider seeking a solution from the Congress.
ACA members should be involved in this effort
by writing their Congressman and Senators urging
them to correspond with the INS on our behalf.
We will make available to ACA members a copy of
the letter of response to INS and talking points
for communicating with policy makers. Be sure
to advise ACA of any contact you have with members
of Congress.
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