Defunct schools still on INS list for foreign students

ATLANTA - At least 19 defunct schools and training academies remain on a list of Georgia institutions authorized by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to enroll foreign students. <br> <br> ``God knows when it was updated last,&#39;&#39; said Thomas Fischer, who was INS director in Atlanta from 1988 to 1999 and is now a consultant. <br> <br> Foreign students have received more scrutiny since investigators learned that one of the Sept. 11 hijackers entered the United States with a student visa but never showed up for class. <br> <br> A stolen or forged acceptance form from a defunct school could be used to obtain such a visa. The INS, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, could not say whether anyone has entered the country with a visa to study at one of the 19 defunct Georgia schools. <br> <br> Because the agency has failed to keep an accurate count of those schools, there is ``a pretty big loophole for people with ulterior motives,&#39;&#39; Fischer said. <br> <br> The INS plans to close the loophole in January with its new Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, an online system to track foreign students. It will ensure that student visas go only to people bound for legitimate institutions, said Rosemary Melville, INS director in Atlanta. <br> <br> ``We&#39;re going to have better information at our fingertips,&#39;&#39; she said. ``We all know, as an agency, that we could do a better job.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> A May 20 report by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice said 86 of 200 randomly reviewed schools appeared to be closed. It said the ``foreign student program has historically been dysfunctional&#39;&#39; and ``highly susceptible to fraud.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Congress ordered the INS to accelerate development of an Internet-based system to monitor the roughly 548,000 foreign students in the United States, including 8,300 in Georgia. <br> <br> The Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered deficiencies in the INS list of Georgia schools by comparing it with records from the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses flight schools; the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission, which regulates certain private schools and colleges; and the Georgia Secretary of State&#39;s Office, which oversees schools that offer instruction in fields such as cosmetology. <br> <br> The Atlanta School of Fashion & Design on Spring Street in Atlanta is said to be operating according to INS records even though the state says it closed in 1983. <br> <br> Also on the list is Bill Shields Aviation on Jekyll Island, which the FAA said lost its certificate to teach pilots in 1994. <br> <br> The FAA said two listed flight schools in Columbus, Van Dusen Airport Services and Columbus Flight Academy, lost certificates in 1994 and 1996.

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