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发帖数: 3693 | 1 http://www.necn.com/05/03/13/Customs-ordered-to-verify-all-intl
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security Department ordered border agents to
verify that every international student who arrives in the U.S. has a valid
student visa, according to an internal memorandum obtained Friday by The
Associated Press. The new procedure is the government's first security
change directly related to the Boston bombings.
The order, which is effective immediately, came from a senior official at U.
S. Customs and Border Protection, David J. Murphy. It was circulated
Thursday, one day after the Obama administration acknowledged that a student
from Kazakhstan accused of hiding evidence for one of the Boston bombing
suspects was allowed to return to the U.S. in January without a valid
student visa.
The student visa for Azamat Tazhayakov had been terminated when he arrived
in New York on Jan. 20. But the border agent in the airport did not have
access to the information in the Homeland Security Department's Student and
Exchange Visitor Information System, called SEVIS.
Tazhayakov was a friend and classmate of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's at the
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Tazhayakov left the U.S. in December
and returned Jan. 20. But in early January, his student-visa status was
terminated because he was academically dismissed from the university.
Tazhayakov and a second Kazakh student were arrested this week on federal
charges of obstruction of justice. They were accused of helping to get rid
of a backpack containing fireworks linked to Tsarnaev. A third student was
also arrested and accused of lying to authorities.
A spokesman for the department, Peter Boogaard, said earlier this week that
the government was working to fix the problem, which allowed Tazhayakov to
be admitted into the country when he returned to the U.S.
Under existing procedures, border agents could verify a student's status in
SEVIS only when the person was referred to a second officer for additional
inspection or questioning. Tazhayakov was not sent to a second officer when
he arrived, because, Boogaard said, there was no information to indicate
Tazhayakov was a national security threat. Under the new procedures, all
border agents were expected to be able to access SEVIS by next week.
The government for years has recognized as a problem the inability of border
agents at primary inspection stations to directly review student-visa
information. The Homeland Security Department was working before the
bombings to resolve the problem, but the new memo outlined interim
procedures until the situation was corrected.
Under the new procedures, border agents will verify a student's visa status
before the person arrives in the U.S. using information provided in flight
manifests. If that information is unavailable, border agents will check the
visa status manually with the agency's national targeting data center.
It is unclear what impact the new procedure will have on wait times at
airports and borders. Customs officials will be required to report any
effect, including longer waits, on a daily basis.
A Buffalo, N.Y., college has advised student-visa holders from Canada to add
two hours to their daily commute. In an email sent to D'Youville College
students, staff and faculty, International Student Office Director Laryssa S
. Petryshyn said the security change "is causing and will cause numerous
delays for all international students entering the United States."
The Obama administration announced an internal review earlier this week of
how U.S. intelligence agencies shared sensitive information before the
bombings and whether the government could have prevented the attack.
Republicans in Congress have promised oversight hearings, which begin
Thursday.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano on Thursday for details from the student-visa applications of
Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, the Kazakhstan students implicated in
helping Tsarnaev after the bombings, including information about how
Tazhayakov re-entered the United States. In a follow-up letter sent Friday,
he asked Napolitano for additional details on SEVIS records and the student
visa program.
Lawmakers and others have long been concerned about terrorists exploiting
the student visa system to travel to the United States. A 20-year-old
college student from Saudi Arabia was arrested in Texas in 2011 on federal
charges of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Authorities
accused him of plotting to blow up dams, nuclear plants or the Dallas home
of former President George W. Bush. He was later convicted and sentenced to
life in prison. |
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