Miller Calls on DHS to Withdraw Inappropriate Classification of Students as “Security Threats”

Investigations & Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Brad Miller (D-NC) has asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to rescind the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) determination that foreign graduate students in oceanography pose a “security threat” because they applied for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) while holding a student visa, a category not eligible for the TWIC.

“The TSA has admitted that these students do not fall into any of the categories it uses to determine security threats, but it inexplicably refuses to change its determination,” Miller said. “I do not understand why these students weren’t simply told that they were not eligible for the TWIC and allowed to withdraw their applications.” Miller said that the students, who are legally in the United States, were now afraid to leave the country or travel for personal or academic purposes because of the official determination that they are a “security threat.”