[Air-l] Immigration, education, and "big brother" [was: Student of Concern ]

[Ulla Bunz]

http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2005-05-18/news/feature.html?src=default_rss

Forcing students to get "export" permits for participation in certain
university courses is just horrible! I've known for a while that there are
so called "black listed" college majors. If you are either a student or a
professor in any of these majors it is a lot more difficult for you to get a
visa for the US. The list is long and you'd be surprised at all the
seemingly innocuous majors that the US Department of Homeland Security
considers threatening. I think Geography is on it, because you learn about
GIS and global positioning systems, and Geology, because you learn about
oil, etc. etc. 
A lot of international students have not been able to get student visas in
the last year or so because immigration rules have become a lot stricter,
even stricter than right after 9/11. I understand this is done to protect
the United States from people who mean it harm. However, being an
international person in the US, and being white, female, from a "friendly"
Western country, and in a non-black listed major, I can't even imagine how
bad it must be for people who are different from me, because even for me,
who fits none of the "dangerous" categories (the article lists China, Cuba,
India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, and
Syria as affected countries, but not Saudi Arabia), visa procedures have
become even more invasive, slower, and sometimes, frankly, offensive. Apart
from the fact that US universities make a lot of money off international
students, requiring export visas of students just so that they can
participate in regular class activities (like looking through a microscope!)
is just horrible, horrible, horrible. I would like to encourage all of you
to submit comments to the Department of Commerce - especially those who once
replied to our AoIR survey they would not want to come to the US for a
conference anymore because of the airport fingerprinting.

The article doesn't explain how to go about sending comments or where. I
searched the Department of Commerce website and found the original notice
(from March 28, 2005) here: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-6057.htm
Here is an excerpt on how to submit comments: 
<Quote>
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: scook at bis.doc.gov. Include ``RIN 0694-AD29'' in 
the subject line of the message.
     Fax: (202) 482-3355.
     Mail or Hand Delivery/Courier: U.S. Department of 
Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, Regulatory Policy Division, 
14th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Room 2705, Washington, DC 20230, ATTN: 
RIN 0694-AD29.
<Endquote>


Here is the closing paragraph from the article referred to in the original
message. I think it's pretty telling:

Quote:
While Gupta is already considering a new career path, [Rachel] Claus warns
that rules like these have been dangerous in the past. "When the Third Reich
was emerging, they said that only Germans of pure Aryan descent could attend
German universities. Significant numbers of German scholars departed," she
says. "That was detrimental for Germany, but was glorious for the U.S. 

"We got Einstein."

http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2005-05-18/news/feature.html?src=default_rss

Ulla