Visa-granting system for foreign students is out of control
George J. Borjas, professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, has an eye-opening article in the June 17 print edition of National Review. He says that the INS issued 315,000 student visas for foreign students and that there may be a million foreign students in the country now. But the kicker is -

The program is no so large, so riddled with corruption, and so ineptly run that the INS simply does not know how many foreign students are in the country or where they are enrolled.

One of the fundamental obligations of the federal government is the security of the borders of our country. Student visas have become so popular for foreigners to get into the US because other visas are so difficult to get. Tourist visas are easy to get, but they are very temporary in duration. For genuine students or for enemy personnel, tourist visas are simply inadequate.

Permanent-residence visas, or green cards, are very difficult to obtain unless the applicant already has a relative living in the US. The government does raffle out 50,000 green cards per years, but so many millions of people enter the green card lottery that the chance of getting a green card that way is quite remote.

But there is no upper limit to the number of student visas that may be granted. To obtain a student visa, a foreigner must first be admitted to a education institution approved by the INS, which then sends the applicant a Form I-20. The applicant must enroll in the school full time, and must certify s/he is financially self-supporting.

There are about 73,000 schools that are INS-certified to hand out I-20s. The schools range form major private and state universities to barber schools, acupuncture academies, beaty colleges and the the San Diego Golf Academy. Prof. Borjas points out that because so many institutions are approved by the INS, "anyone with the money can buy a student visa to enter the US [so] America has effectively delegated the task of selecting immigrants to thousands of privately run entities whose incentives need not coincide with the national interest."

Meaning, of course, that the bottom line is, well, the bottom line. Foreign students comprise a huge percentage of students at many universities and schools, especially in post-graduate studies. Foreign students receive half of the Ph.Ds awarded in engineering, for example. Enrollment means money, and universities further exploit foreign students by using them for labor at minimum wages. Schools will scream if the INS gets its act together and starts to tighten entry requirements for foreign students because it will cost the schools altogether probably billions of dollars per year. In fact, schools already screamed when Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) proposed a six-month moratorium on granting student visas. She withdrew the proposal after colleges and universities lobbied her and her allies intensely.

But the presence of so many foreign students in America, even legitimate students, is a huge drain on the American treasury. Tuition does not nearly cover the cost of higher education; Gordon Winston of Williams College estimates that the national per-student average for subsidy at private schools is $6,400 and for state schools is $9,200, making an annual cost, borne by taxpayers or donors, of $2.5 billion per year. This cost almost certainly is greater than financial benefit the foreign students accrue to the US

The corruption the present system encourages is astonishing, but not surprising. With stakes so high, graft and bribery are certainly found. Admissions officers at major schools have accepted bribes to admit students, and professors have accepted bribes to give passing grades. Overseas, the corruption is even more severe. Prominent Chinese sell letters of recommendation or self-support certifications to applicants for $10,000 or more. Many applicants even hire professional actors to stand in for them in interviews.

We need to think hard about what benefit the United States accrues from such a boundless and effectively boundary-less student visa system. It is highly doubtful that on the whole this system is serving the national interest.