From AP, with thanks to EPG:
WASHINGTON – Nearly 200 people were turned away after trying to enter the country on student visas last month when their names failed to show up in the government’s new database of foreign students, a Homeland Security Department official said Tuesday.
One of the 190 cases has led the agency to investigate a possible conspiracy to bring groups of foreign students illegally into the United States, said Asa Hutchinson, the department’s undersecretary for border and transportation security.
Universities, schools and other institutions that enroll foreign students had until Aug. 1 to enter identifying information of all enrolled foreign students into the Student Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS.
Hutchinson said border security officials contacted schools when a student’s name did not appear on the foreign student tracking system. If the school didn’t have the required immigration forms from the student, the student was refused entry.
“It’s not just a matter of a glitch in the system,” he said. “They were really trying to come in under false information. That does not mean they are terrorists, but it certainly poses a challenge to the integrity of our system and potential danger to our country.”…
“This does not mean they are terrorists.” It doesn’t mean they aren’t, either.