Thursday, October 23, 2003

Feds seek fee to track foreign students

The government plans to charge foreign students a $100 fee to pay for a tracking system created to prevent possible terrorists from using student visas to enter the country, a federal official said Wednesday.
Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary at the Homeland Security Department, said the one-time fee should generate more than $30 million annually for the program, known as the Student and Exchange Visa Information Service.
Any foreigner enrolled in a school approved by department must register with the service to enter United States. Some 800,000 students enrolled at 8,000 schools are now in the system.

Whatever happened to this?

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

But only your poor, huddled masses with at least $100 to spare.
Right.

Update: Reading further on, I see that that's in addition to the $100 visa application fee, so make that the wretched refuse with at least $200 a head. Is INS being run by former bar bouncers or what?

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