The American government is spooked.
After it was revealed that two Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers entered the country on student visas, the prospect of getting other shady international students from evil countries simply freaked us out.
We don’t want to make the same mistake twice. That’s why the geniuses in Washington created “special registration” for international students from a laundry list of mostly Muslim countries because everyone knows incognito terrorists would feel obligated to tell our government their whereabouts or face deportation.
The office formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Services — now the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services — has been tracking students from such truly evil countries as Eritrea. The BCIS wants to see what they are studying, track their money trail and monitor what kinds of “terrorist” hobbies they participate in, like diversifying our college campuses.
The BCIS recently extended the special registration deadline by a month for Group three and four on the hit list, which include nonimmigrant aliens from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Kuwait.
How exactly are these rules keeping me safe from terrorism?
These actions are merely a symbolic step to warn the international community that the U.S. is too scared to take in “your tired, your poor; your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; the wretched refuse of your teeming shore … ” We’re basically saying we don’t want any more foreign students with “jihad” in their vocabulary — they’re too risky.
The Bush Administration must have some inkling that these steps are not going to have any effect on potential terrorists. They are designed to deter the actions of innocents and instill the same nightmares in others that have kept America from a good night’s sleep for a year and a half.
The program will do nothing to make me feel safer; instead I fear even more for what is to come of my international friends who are now blacklisted for the potential actions of their fellow countrymen. As an American student, I would feel better about my personal safety sitting next to a quiet, mustachioed Pakistani man than a convicted felon/future football star like Rodney Woods.
Then again, my fears are based on fact and reality. Woods had due process and got a conviction; the government is entering a guilty plea for international students when their only crime is an attempt to better themselves with a quality education.
Inherent fear of the “enemy” — whoever the flavor of the administration may be — is just as part of Americana as baseball and hot dogs. The United States is no longer the land of the free and home of the brave. Land of the paranoid and home of the ignorant is more like it.
Those who have come here seeking an education — centered on our American value of freedom — are in for a rude awakening. The wary mistrust of foreigners that has infiltrated American minds will only encourage hate crimes and more programs like special registration.
Freedom doesn’t exist here anymore. We’re too scared to enjoy it.
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