International students entering the U.S. will be subject to additional security checks when they go through customs at all entry points to the U.S., like airports and borders, according to changes the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency enacted earlier this month after the Boston bombings.
Azamat Tazhayakov, arrested earlier this month in connection with the Boston bombings, reportedly left the United States in December 2012 and returned in January with an invalid student visa – which has led to concern from government officials about the effectiveness of current security protocols, according to the New York Times.
Tazhayakov is currently in a federal prison on charges that he conspired to destroy, conceal and cover up objects belonging to Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, his friend from college, according to the FBI.
In a memo released this month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection ordered all customs agents to check foreign students against a tracking system that higher educational institutions use to keep track of their international and foreign exchange students, said Shideh Hanassab, director of the UCLA Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars.
Before the new security checks, foreign students only had to present their valid visas and passports.
Jaime Ruiz, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that the new rules are necessary protocols to ensure safety for Americans.
“We’re in a post-9/11 environment and we’re a welcoming nation, but we must take measures to protect our way of life,” Ruiz said. “We try to find a needle in the haystack, and try to make the haystack a little smaller.”
Under the new procedures, border agents have to verify a student’s visa status before the person arrives in the U.S. using information provided in flight records.
The tracking system was formerly available to only the universities and Department of Homeland Security, but is now open to customs under the new security provisions, Hanassab said. The Dashew Center sent out emails to international students on campus earlier this month to alert them of the changes.
UCLA international students with F-1 and J-1 visas, which allow students and exchange visitors to study in the U.S., have to submit their travel documents to the Dashew Center for approval before they are permitted for reentry into the country.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement it is reforming the student visa system to ensure that Customs and Border Protection is provided with real-time updates on all relevant student visa information.
The full transition won’t be made for another couple of weeks, though students can expect delays at the airport from the transition, Hanassab said.
Some students experienced long waits at customs after the changes were enacted.
First-year economics student Matias Nunez waited an hour to pick up his girlfriend, an international student from Chile, at Los Angeles International Airport last week.
He said he was worried about her, especially because she had gone through the process many times without a delay.
Some international students said they are cautious about the changes, but not entirely against them.
Andreas MengYang Liu, a third-year physics and business economics student and international student from Germany, expressed mixed feelings about the new security provisions.
“It’s a means of suspecting everyone to be a potential criminal,” said Liu, who is also president of the International Students Association. “However, the sense behind it is valid and a good precaution.”
Because there is a large population of international students in the U.S., Liu said he does not think the new security protocol is efficient.
Shuyang Dai, a first-year applied mathematics student from China, said it will take time to get used to the changes.
“People don’t care about international students needing time or being pushed to keep their flight schedules,” said Dai. “But we (already) don’t have the same rights as citizens, so we’ll just have to get used to it.”