This commentary is in response to De’BorahBankston’s article in the Nov. 5, 2003 issue of The DailyCampus, “Students Studying with Expired Visas.”
I don’t know how much research you have done on visas, butI need to clarify a few things for you.
I myself am an international student, and I work closely withthe Foreign Student Advisors in the International Office, so I feelthat I do know much about student visas.
First, a visa is essentially an entry pass. When you get a visato a country, it means that you have been allowed to enter thatcountry. Now, an embassy makes a decision as to how many entriesthey will grant you. Some visas have restrictions on how long youcan legally stay in the country once you’ve entered.
Specifically, a student visa allows you entry into the countryfor the purpose of attending school. Some student visas allow formultiple entries into the country. Now, how long you can stay inthe country on a student visa is determined by the “durationof your status.” By this, the Bureau of Citizenship andNaturalization Services)means that you can stay in the country foras long as you are a student; not for as long as your visa isvalid. This stipulation is the difference with a student visa.
Paula Morrison-Livingston, an International Student Advisor,remarked on the article saying that, “It is outrageous thatThe Daily Campus would jeopardize our university and our communityof almost 800 students and scholars as well as the confidence ofits readers.”
Morrison-Livingston feels that the drive to publish the articlewas “due to a desire for sensationalism.” The article,”Students Studying with Expired Visas,” Morrison-Livingston said, “does not just contain errors, but it isslanderous and based on an entirely inaccurate premise.”
“For The Daily Campus article to state that thereare, ‘ranks of educators, ministers and community membershiding SMU students with expired visas,’ is absolutely nottrue,” Morrison-Livingston said.
“This university, as well as our students and scholars, goto every effort to comply with immigration regulations. Any studentwho would be out of status at SMU would be a rare exception, due tosome kind of technical mistake, ” Morrison-Livingstonsaid.
In the article it is stated that students are here illegallybecause they have expired visas. It is mentioned several times thattheir home countries deny them visas.
Morrison-Livingston explains that, “First, a visa to cometo the United States is issued by the U.S. government, notanyone’s home country. Second, a student with an expired visais not illegal!”
As Morrison-Livingston stated, an expired visa does not make astudent illegal any more than if your junior high library card hasexpired. Her analogy is simple:
“Your junior high library card is supposed to expire. Whenyou are not in junior high any longer, that card has served itspurpose and is no longer needed.”
According to Morrison-Livingston, a student visa is merely forthe purposes of entering the country. Its renewal is not requiredin order for the student to continue to stay in the country.
Morrison-Livingston asks, “On behalf of the InternationalCenter of SMU, we would like to know, where [De’BorahBankston] obtained her information? We were not consulted on anyaspect of this article.”
In addition to a visa, a student is given a document called anI-20, which is issued by the school that she will be attending.This document states what the student’s degree is and theduration of the degree. The expiration date on the I-20 is the datewhen you are expected to complete your degree — the date whenyour status expires, and you are no longer a student. So, legally,a student in the United States can stay in the country after hervisa has expired as long as her I-20 is still valid (and herpassport). So, the fact that a student’s visa has expireddoes not automatically mean that the student is illegal.
I think that this article grossly misrepresents theinternational community at SMU by suggesting that many of theinternational students are criminals. This is not only hurtful anddemoralizing, but it perpetuates the suspicion of and disdain forinternational students — especially after Sept. 11, 2001— that is already felt by the less informed members ofsociety who, disturbingly, are quite large in numbers.
Also, there is hardly an occasion when professors need to knowthe immigration status of a student. It is neither their place northeir concern. Immigration issues are dealt with by theInternational Student Advisors who communicate with the BCIS. So,the idea that professors must “hide” their students isabsurd, and it is highly unlikely that any SMU faculty member wouldprofess to do such a thing.
And, to the girl in one of my classes whom I overheard sayingthat these students with expired visas must “just gohome,” an American girl who happens to be of Chinese descent,I say you need to “just grow up!” If your parents orparents’ parents had succumbed to such ignorant remarks, youand the bulk of Americans who can trace their roots abroad wouldnot be here at all. What a dull, uninteresting America that wouldbe!
I suggest that, to preserve any integrity that The Daily Campusmight have, more thorough research must be done on the moresensitive issues before slapping an article on the front page that,to someone familiar with the subject, is obviously ill-researchedand completely undeserving of being in the paper at all.