America Undermines Its National Security By Educating Its Adversaries

For decades the United States has professed to have an official policy of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology.

In the 1950’s the Rosenbergs were executed for spying and passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, today more than 500,000 foreign students are enrolled in universities in the United States to study the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curricula.

While not all of these students are studying disciplines that have a direct nexus to nuclear technology, many disciplines do intersect with aerospace and nuclear technology.

Foreign students are permitted to engage in Optional Practical Training to put their education to use and learn how to apply what they have learned in the classrooms and university laboratories in the “real world.”
Sometimes these students work for companies that engage in military-related work.

Not long ago I wrote an article that focused on how our policies had the effect of Educating ‘Engineers of Jihad’ At US Universities.

Today we should be as concerned that China’s acquisition of U.S. technology through its students in the United States poses an increasing threat to our nation.

On May 19, 2016 Reuters reported, “U.S. charges six Chinese nationals with economic espionage.”

The U.S. Navy’s underwater drones seem to have drawn particular interest by China’s military that has constructed an artificial island in the South China Sea.  On April 22, 2016 Newsweek reported, “Chines Spy in Florida Sent Drone Parts to China for Military.”

The New Yorker published a revealing article A New Kind of Spy How China obtains American technological secrets under the sarcastic heading, “The Department of Espionage”

Furthermore China provides technology to North Korea’s tyrannical and bellicose leader Kim Jong-Un who continues to order his military stockpile nuclear weapons and perfect ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles) that could reach the continental United States.
On August 20, 2017 Newsweek reported, North Korea ‘Nuclear War’ Warning Ahead of Joint U.S./South Korea Military Exercises.

According to current statistics provided by the DHS, the greatest number of STEM students are citizens of India (173,258) while the second largest contingent of students are from China (152,002) and the number of Saudi Arabian students (25,125) is the third largest.

On June 23, 2017 DHS issued a news release, SEVP Introduces a Redesigned SEVIS by the Numbers Report that began by noting that the latest SEVIS by the Numbers report, which is presented in an enhanced design, is now available on ICE.gov/SEVP.

For clarification, SEVP is an acronym for Student and Exchange Visitor Program and SEVIS is an acronym for Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.

The news release included the following:

According to the latest report, there are 1.18 million F and M students studying in the United States, a two percent increase since May 2016. There are also approximately 194,600 J-1 exchange visitors in the United States.

Of the 1.18 million F and M students attending school in the United States:

  • 76 percent are enrolled in bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral programs.
  • 77 percent are from Asia.
  • 43 percent are pursuing programs of study in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
  • 35 percent study in California, New York or Texas.

The report also notes that there are currently 8,774 SEVP-certified schools in the United States.

On April 30, 2009 Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, testified before the Senate Immigration Subcommittee at a hearing chaired by Senator Chuck Schumer (one of the “Gang of Eight” that pushed for Comprehensive Immigration Reform).  The topic of the hearing was: “Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009: Can We Do It and How?

During his prepared testimony Greenspan addressed the supposed “benefit” of importing many more foreign highly skilled workers to drive down their wages by outrageously saying, in part:

“…Greatly expanding our quotas for the highly skilled would lower wage premiums of skilled over lesser skilled. Skill shortages in America exist because we are shielding our skilled labor force from world competition. Quotas have been substituted for the wage pricing mechanism. In the process, we have created privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at noncompetitively high levels by immigration quotas on skilled professionals. Eliminating such restrictions would reduce at least some of our income inequality.”

The notion of flooding America with increasing numbers of foreign high-tech students and foreign high-tech workers is a “Lose/Lose” for America and Americans.

American students must attend those universities to secure their futures and consequently secure America’s future.

RELATED ARTICLE: I’m a University President. Here’s the Change That Must Happen in Higher Ed.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared CAPSWeb.org.

1 reply
  1. guest
    guest says:

    Not only in our universities but in our military academies! Yes, foreign students are graduating from our US Military Academies!
    It’s insane!

    Reply

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