The Detroit News
National program finds 36,000 immigration violations, but only 1,600 are investigated.
A government system that tracks foreign students studying in the United States has detected tens of thousands of immigration violations in the two years since it began. But few of those cases were ever investigated.
The student-tracking system, which monitors whether foreign students are living up to the terms of their student visas by staying enrolled in school, was one of a handful of high-tech measures laid out in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks to erase some of the blind spots in the nation's immigration system. But critics say it won't deliver much added security until the government does more to investigate the abuses it detects.
In its first year alone, the program, known as the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System, detected more than 36,000 potential violations of student visas nationwide, of which only 1,600 were investigated, according to the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which operates the system. Agents made 155 arrests as a result. The agency was unable to provide updated figures.
Posted by Richard at September 20, 2005