Student Visa Double Standard

While a former Taliban official enters his sophomore year at Yale on a government-approved visa, students from countries far removed from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 are finding it much harder to study in the United States with official approval.

The problem that South Koreans have with the Visa Waiver, which allows a 90-day stay without a visa in America only for non-immigrant tourists and business travelers (not students or temporary workers), is that South Korea is not currently eligible for the Visa Waiver. This is a result in part to the attacks on 9/11, although South Koreans were not among the 19 terrorists who killed thousands in their winged attacks five years ago.

“Homeland Security became the be all” after the agency consolidation, Dennis Halpin, a professional staffer of the House Committee on Internal Relations argued.

“South Korea is coming along at a sea of change.”

He spoke of his time over in Asia working for the consulate office. He compared the visas to “hamburgers” and the distribution of the visas to be “like McDonalds.” It was a question of “how many visas have you issued?”

South Koreans are afraid that one of two things might occur that will cause them to never receive the benefits of the Visa Waiver. Either Kim Jong-il of North Korea would send agents in as refugees into South Korea if North Korea were to implode, or that America would close its borders to South Koreans because of the number of Korean women who have been entering America through the Mexican border.

“It might never happen,” Mr. Halpin argued. “I don’t think it will.”

Mr. Halpin then spoke briefly on the “nativist mentality” that many Americans have when it comes to immigrants and visitors. He said that it is that kind of mentality that is harming the Visa Waiver Program.

He then called the South Koreans to fight for the program. “If this is an issue for the Korean community, they have to mobilize.”

Dr. James Jay Carafano, Senior Research Fellow of Defense and Homeland Security at Heritage Foundation, argued that “you fight long wars differently.”

He gave four points to how to win a long war. They are security, economic growth, strengthening civil society, and winning the war of ideas. According to Dr. Carafano, “U.S. policy fails on all four accounts.”

On the issue of security, Dr. Carafano believes that America has a “layered system,” but that biometrics in security procedures is “a step in the right direction.”

Dr. Carafano cited President Eisenhower by saying, “You can’t win a war by bankrupting yourself.”

“We need a different visa policy,” Dr. Carafano stated.

“We really need to move to a better system.” He added, “We want to do this for the benefit of the United States.”

Dr. Carafano noted that “less than a third of Americans have passports,” so therefore “Americans don’t get it” when it comes to the importance of the Visa Waiver program.

Matthew Murphy is an intern at Accuracy in Academia.