This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 7, 2011 - U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., announced Sunday that she is calling for a probe into student visa fraud allegedly committed by "sham universities" set up for the sole purpose of getting young foreigners into the United States.
"'Sham universities' are gaming the system, and while they are at it, they're putting our nation's security at risk," McCaskill said. "This has got to stop."
McCaskill said in an interview that "a handful of raids'' have been conducted around the country that have uncovered the fake schools that have somehow been certified to participate in the Student Exchange and Visitor Program.
One in Los Angeles used the student visas to bring in Russian prostitutes, the senator said, adding that she fears the sham system could be used to funnel potential terrorists legally into the country.
She emphasized that none of the sham programs has been found in Missouri, but McCaskill said that doesn't make the matter less of a national concern.
"We have to crack down on this criminal fraud," she said. "Clearly, the (federal) oversight isn't airtight. Obviously, somebody didn't do the 'bare minimum' to determine these were actual schools."
McCaskill said she is asking the General Accounting Office to do an audit of the student visa program, and she also has sent a letter to the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security "to conduct an investigation into these instances of student visa fraud and uncover how such schools were able to legally issue student visas."
She also is among five senators who have co-signed letters about the issue to Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
In addition, McCaskill also is seeking to increase the penalties for those found to be responsible for the fake schools.
The senator, who is running for re-election in 2012, also cited her other efforts to improve national security -- and took a swipe at House Republicans who knocked out much of the $600 million she had inserted in the current budget bill to pay for more drone flights along the nation's southern border to monitor illegal crossings. The bill also called for 1,500 additional border officers.
McCaskill said the program's added costs were covered by increasing the fee on foreign-based companies that use U.S. visa programs to bring certain types of skilled workers into the United States.
