Washington: A Republican congressman introduced legislation this week to tighten oversight of the US student visa program, saying weaknesses in the system have allowed fraud, visa overstays and national security risks to persist.
Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas on Wednesday (local time) said the Student Visa Integrity Act is intended to strengthen enforcement and limit what he described as long-standing abuses of student visas.
“Studying in the United States is a privilege, not a right,” Gill said in a statement. He said the program has been exploited by “fraudsters and bad actors” and argued the bill would protect national security, enforce immigration law and ensure the program serves US interests.
Gill’s office said the legislation would establish firm end dates for student visa programs and expand in-person interview requirements aimed at reducing overstays.
It would also restrict transfers between academic programs and impose tougher penalties on schools and officials found to have committed visa fraud, including possible prison eligibility or removal from federal student visa programs.
The bill would bar nationals from countries it defines as adversarial from studying in the United States and would require colleges and universities to disclose financial or institutional ties to the Chinese government.
A companion measure has been introduced in the Senate by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who said he was concerned by the number of students from countries such as China and Iran attending US universities.
“I was shocked to learn how many students from hostile countries like China and Iran are studying at our American universities,” Tuberville said, including in his home state. He said there was no justification for allowing students from such countries to attend elite US institutions.
The House bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Nehls and Collins, and is supported by conservative groups including the Immigration Accountability Project and Heritage Action.
Foreign students in the United States are tracked through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, which was created after national security lapses exposed flaws in paper-based monitoring. Supporters of the legislation say SEVIS has seen little modernisation in more than 20 years, even as foreign student enrollment has grown from about 750,000 in 2012 to more than 1.5 million.
The Department of Homeland Security has estimated that about 50,000 student and exchange visitor visa holders overstayed their authorised programs in fiscal year 2023, figures cited by backers of the bill as evidence of the need for tighter controls.
(IANS)
