#6038
[Second Issue of the Day]
#13
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002
Subject: Re: 6031-Visas
From: "John P. Deever" <john@isar.org>
Constantine Dmitriev is correct that the State Department's new harsh visa restrictions apply not only to men from Russian and the Middle East, but to men from all countries where the US already bars visitors without visas. Nevertheless, this rule appears to have been imposed with little thought, planning, or public discussion -- an assertion I can make while reaffirming the importance and usefulness of David Johnson's list by sharing the following personal anecdote.
I forwarded the original JRL item on the new visa restriction to my wife, an international student and scholar adviser at a university (which I won't name to spare them the embarrassment). She and her colleagues, startled by the news, re-posted the Moscow Times story to Scholar-L, a listserv read by university foreign student advisers all over the country. My wife wasn¹t the only one who was shocked by this new restriction -- universities all over the country are probably scrambling right now to assist visiting professors and researchers in fulfilling the State Department's sudden draconian requirement, one which comes on top of so many existing restrictions.
Unlike many State Department forms, the Form DS-157 is not available as a .pdf on the Internet at this time, making its obligatory nature onerous as well as foolish. Of course its detailed questions about past employment and affiliations are no more likely to identify terrorists than would be a security officer's outright question "Are you planning to blow up this plane?" Like so much post-September 11 lawmaking, the parties who stand to gain by propagating fear pulled out their "Beyond Our Wildest Dreams" files and went to work.
John P. Deever
Publications Program Officer
Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia
1601 Connecticut Ave NW #301
Washington DC 20009
tel: 202-387-3034, fax: 202-667-3291
http://www.isar.org
Next Article
- Back to the Top -