Foreign students tracked

Rockwell said in a song, “I always feel like somebody’s watching me.” And, if you’re an… Rockwell said in a song, “I always feel like somebody’s watching me.” And, if you’re an international student, it’s true – somebody is always watching.

The Student Exchange Visitor and Information System – a Department of Homeland Security initiative – is now tracking foreign students through their online computer records.

The SEVIS program tracks about one million foreign students in the United States each year. It keeps track of international students’ programs of study, course loads, grades, transfers, addresses and employment. SEVIS is replacing slow, manual, paper-driven procedures.

SEVIS is a computerized process that collects, maintains, and manages information about foreign students and exchange visitors during their stay in the United States. According to a press release on the Department of Homeland Security’s Web site, SEVIS can give real-time assessments of international students, faculty and staff to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which heads the program.

ICE, which is now under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella, is a combination of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Customs Service and the Federal Protective Service.

Pitt’s Office of International Services is the contact source for Pitt students, faculty and staff involved in international study. About 3,000 foreign students, faculty and staff are in OIS at Pitt.

The filing deadline – when universities had to have all information about foreign students submitted to the program – was August 3 for all schools.

Pitt was online with the SEVIS program in January.Legislation for the SEVIS program began in 1993 after the first World Trade Center bombing, when a car bomb exploded in the parking garage beneath the building. It killed six people and injured more than 1,000.

Eyad Ismoil of Jordan entered the U.S. on a student visa to attend the University of Kansas. He dropped out after three semesters and joined a group of Islamic terrorists. Ismoil was a co-defendant with Ramzi Yousef as one of the ringleaders of the terrorist cell responsible for the attack.

The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks hastened the legislation process to enact SEVIS. The legislation implements section 641 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, adds to the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 and amends The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001.

U.S. authorities later confirmed that one of the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers entered the country on a student visa. Mohammed Atta’s student visa was approved on July 17, 2001, and Marwan al-Shehhi’s student visa was approved later. The flight schools they were to attend did not receive notice of their approval until March 2002.