Cord Byrd: “the opportunity to seek a quality higher education has long enticed men and women to leave their homelands to travel to…”

“the opportunity to seek a quality higher education has long enticed men and women to leave their homelands to travel to America. We are, by and large, a generous Nation when it comes to providing an education to foreign citizenry. Indeed, American colleges, universities, and technical schools have opened wide their doors to students from foreign lands. And all levels of schooling are available to foreign nationals of every age--from preschool to post-graduate work, from public grade schools to private technical-training institutions. In fact, foreign students have proven to be a lucrative source of revenue for U.S. educational institutions. Private-sector analysts estimate that foreign students contribute between $9 billion and $13 billion to the U.S. economy every year. Any number of marketing efforts are made by colleges and universities to recruit foreign students, whose tuition fees serve to bulk up college budgets. As a result, we have opened our borders to a stream of foreign students with precious little oversight of their movement through the American educational stream. According to the INS, there are currently 2 million foreign students admitted to study in this country--649,000 of whom were admitted just last year. These include nuclear engineering scholars, biochemistry students, and pilot-trainees, who have access to sensitive technology, training, and information.”