Mohammed Atta, who U.S. authorities believe was the ringleader of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was in the United States on a student visa when he flew a plane into the World Trade Center.

It is because of this and the intense scrutiny that has been paid to the Immigration and Naturalization Service since the attacks that has led to increased concern over these visas at universities across the country. The INS is the government department that regulates student visas.

Patricia Burak, director of the Lillian and Emanuel Slutzker Center for International Services at Syracuse University, said there are currently more than 2,000 students who are in the United States on visas to attend SU. The overwhelming majority, about 1,400 of these students, are graduate students, but there are also 373 undergraduates and 383 who have completed their education and are working until their visa expires, which is one year after they leave the university, she said.

Burak also said that government efforts, specifically those by the INS, to crack down on student visas are somewhat misguided.

‘Most foreign students are better at following the rules then most Americans are at renewing their driving insurance,’ Burak said. ‘Where our government needs to tighten up is allowing visas or letting into the country those who do not seek full-time education. Once they get past the port of entry, it is nearly impossible to locate people.’

Burak said that although the current system in place to track foreign students is already very sophisticated, a more rigid system, the Student and Exchange Visitors Information System, or SEVIS, was fast-tracked after Sept. 11. It is slated for full operation in January 2003, she said. She said that although the details of the system are still being worked out, it will include an increased role for universities in continuing to provide information such as addresses while also seeking new information such as class attendance.

So far, Burak said, her department has not been contacted by INS, although one student did request that she sit with them while they were interviewed by representatives of the department.

Goodwin Cooke, an international relations professor, said while the Sept. 11 attacks brought to light several flaws in the current system, a separation needs to be made between the law-breaking foreign students and law-abiding foreign students.

‘Even though some were using their visas to go to flight school and learn how to fly airplanes into buildings, we should discriminate between those educations and educations at responsible universities,’ Cooke said.

One current holder of a student visa at SU, Fahad Khawaja, said that he has not been contacted by the INS since Sept. 11, but he understood that there was a possibility that he could be questioned. Khawaja, who was born in Pakistan but lives in the United Arab Emirates, also said there were already consequences to being a foreign student even before Sept. 11.

‘If you get caught drinking underage, then it would be different if I did,’ he said. ‘I guess they could deport me or something.’

The most important thing to recognize, Burak said, is that evil exists everywhere and closing the borders to those who want to come to the United States to learn will not be a positive step. Burak, who also teaches a course in Russian literature, said she likes to quote Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ to illustrate this point.

”God and the devil are battling on the heart of man,” Burak said. ‘And sometimes the devil wins.’

Published on March 21, 2002 at 12:00 pm