Lawsuit: Universities Are Helping Foreign Students Who Might Be National Security Threats Illegally Enter The United StatesA school official alleges that staff were directed to lie about foreign students, raising concerns about DHS oversight of foreign nationals.BY: JON FEERE
JUNE 09, 2022
School officials across the country are undoubtedly paying close attention to a lawsuit against Columbia University filed by a former employee who claims she was fired for refusing to act in an unlawful manner and lie to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about the status of foreign students.
The implications of this lawsuit are significant for Columbia University because if it turns out the allegations are true, it is likely Columbia will lose the ability to enroll new foreign students for at least a year. It also raises the question of whether DHS is conducting an appropriate level of oversight on more than 15,000 campuses it has certified to enroll foreign students.
According to the lawsuit, a Columbia University employee working as a Designated School Official (or DSO, a school’s liaison with DHS) was directed by Columbia’s leadership to “process immigration documents on behalf of a group of potential students from South Africa without the necessary documentation, including evidence of funding and full-time engagement in a prescribed program, as required by federal regulations.”
DSO Yocasta Brens claims that Columbia’s “Provost, Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Stephanie J. Rowley, accused Brens of being too ‘inflexible’ in the application of federal regulations.” Brens claims that she and her staff “were frequently asked to ‘bend’ the rules in order to keep the enrollment of international students at a high level” and were directed to “certify that certain international students were enrolled full-time when they were, in fact, not full-time students” and “extend students’ immigration documents when they did not qualify based on federal requirements” and “ignore the lack of English language proficiency.”
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DHS relies heavily on DSOs to ensure that information on foreign students is properly reported. This information includes academic records, addresses, and whether the student is maintaining a full course of study, for example. These are critical roles created by regulation and the central purpose is to ensure that DHS is able to keep tabs on foreign students.
This information is maintained in a DHS national security database created in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The database exists precisely because DHS needs to know if and when a foreign national fails to maintain full-time enrollment at a school.
If a person entered the United States under the pretense of being a student but is instead intending to work illegally or engage in a terrorist attack, federal law enforcement needs to figure it out quickly. Schools that fail to take their role seriously create significant security threats to our nation.
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Source:
https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/09/lawsuit-universities-are-helping-foreign-students-who-might-be-national-security-threats-illegally-enter-the-united-states/
