FBI Seeks Missing Egyptian Students

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2006 — -- The FBI and U.S. Immigration and Custom's Enforcement alerted intelligence agencies and state and local law enforcement this week about 11 Egyptian students who failed to report to their classes at Montana State University after they entered the country last month.

The 11 students entered the United States through New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 29, 2006, but have failed to arrive at MSU, where they were scheduled to take English and other academic courses as part of an exchange program with Mansoura University, which is located in Alexandria, Egypt.

"The FBI and ICE would like to locate these 11 students in order to speak with them," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said in a statement released Monday. "At this point all they have done is not show up for a scheduled academic program and their student visas have been revoked."

The students are required to register with the university under ICE's Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which was set up after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to make sure that only legitimate foreign students are granted entry into the United States. Law enforcement and immigration officials envisioned the program shortly after the 9/11 attacks and have required schools and exchange programs to use the system since February 2003.

Several of the 9/11 hijackers had listed their occupations as "student" on their visa forms, but only hijacker pilot Hani Hanjour had applied for a student visa. On his visa application, which was released by the 9/11 Commission, Hanjour never listed what university or college he would be attending; the SEVP was meant to fill this gap in security.

Since the program has been up and running, more than 10,300 schools and universities have participated in it, with more than 1 million foreign exchange visitors and students registering. ICE has generated 7,600 leads on potential student visa violations since the program began in 2003, and ICE has arrested more than 1,800 individuals for visa violations under the program.