TSA to MIT Oceanography students: you are a "security threat"
Some oceanographer friends of mine were encouraged to apply for TWIC cards so that they could access research vessels in port without escorts. Because they're, y'know, researchers.Link (Thanks, Neil!)That's not how the TSA rolls, though, and they received nice letters on TSA letterhead explaining that "I have determined that you pose a security threat."
It's a good thing we found this out now, before the NSF, MIT, and WHOI agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for them to study here.
So let's review:
* Foreign students on F-1 visas are under no circumstances eligible for TWIC cards, even if they have a legitimate need to access US ports and research vessels.
* They shouldn't worry though, because anybody who has a TWIC card can still escort them (or anybody else) into "restricted" areas. Even though the TSA doesn't trust you, as long as someone they do trust trusts you, that's good enough.
* When the agency that's responsible for inspecting your shoes and liquids at the airport calls you a security threat, you shouldn't worry: it's not like there could possibly be far-reaching repercussions.I feel better already.
the latest
latest episodes
From the TSA/TWIC website:
Long story short, they are not Transportation Workers, and asking them to be escorted in commercial port areas (which are restricted from the general public, and being a student doesn't make you "special" or grant you special privliges) is perfectly reasonable. If that is a truely unbearable demand on the researchers, they should then try and establish a non-commercial port where TWICs or escorts are not needed for unfettered access to all areas of the port.
Yes, because port lands in Boston are totally easy to come by let alone the cost of facilities to dock and maintain research vessels. I don't think this is really excusable. We can provide the required credentials to truckers, longshoremen and port employees but students are an unreasonable security risk? It's also strange that student F-1 visas are not permissible and we all know there are no foreign nationals working in ports, valid work visa or not. Not a single one.
I think accommodations can be made here to allow this research to go on.
@ken hansen (#1)
Students aren't special? I think you're confusing these students with some kind of strange grudge against students with entitlement complexes or inflated egos. Students aren't special on some broad, over-arching level but there are some ways that, yes, they could be construed as special. In fact, one of those ways would be having a $65,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for your research. It's not like these are random kids with no legitimate purpose just asking for special credentials they don't deserve.
Good. Good. Al Qaeda needs more oceanographers. I'm glad to hear that we're not neglecting the sciences in our recruitment efforts. We should work on pissing off some nuclear physicists next.
But on the plus side, getting a TWIC card makes you a little deputy of the law, deciding who goes in and out. Maybe it should come in the shape of a little tin star badge.
"She [TSA's Ellen Howe] said she did not *believe* the denial letters would cause students any problems with visa renewal or airport security checks..."
Wow, *that* is certainly reassuring. Yes we labeled you a security threat in an official letter, but we're kinda sorta pretty gosh darn sure that might not cause you any problems down the road.
Hmm...maybe they could get a TWIKI card instead?
Meaning if they were granted TWIC cards, they could then escort whoever they wanted.
My workplace doesn't require TWI cards yet, but when they do I can't imagine I'll be allowed to bring in whoever I want. That would just be ridiculous...
#2 - OK, land around the sea is scarce, that doesn;t justify lowering security requirments because some students/researchers might have to wait for someone to escort them to their ship...
#3 - A $65,000/year federal grant does not make one special (in a "rules don't apply to me" kind of way) - by your logic, would a $130K/year grant recipient be twice as special? $32.5K/year grant recipient half as special?
#5 - Ha ha, I like the Tin Star comment...
#6 - Wait, some of these students/researchers aren't US Citizens, and we're kvetching about limiting their unlimited access to our public ports? Granted, a US Citizen could just as easily "go bad" as a foreign national, but do we really need to grant them unlimited access? Remember Dubai Port dust up last year - we wouldn't let foreign nationals own a US port, but for the cost of a tuition check/grant application they can get access to anywhere they want in our ports? Really?
It may seem "cool" to label this as the Gov't/TSA obstructing research/education, but all they did was deny some applications for TWIC cards from folks that don't qualify for them (a few apparently had criminal records, acording to the NYT article). What's next, students at flying schools apply for visas to gain unfettered access to our airports, but the mean TSA steps in and denies them - I mean come on, they are students! Duh! They need access to the airplanes, control tower, and runways!
Ken,
No large blocks of boldface type, please. It makes your comment harder to read and looks a lot like yelling.
Most comments have neglected to note that for the students in question, "port" includes their home base, i.e. the docking area of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). It's a huge inconvenience to not have your research assistant be able to run ashore to grab something.
Also, note that the designation "security threat" in the US means that it automatically brands the WHOI international students as being suspicious to the TSA, even when they're not near their ships. Yeah, because clearly these oceanographers are more worthy of airport searches because they applied for a TWIC.
The article in MIT's The Tech is more thorough:
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V128/N25/whoi.html
I see that Ken Hansen still believes that the TSA can do no wrong.
Ken quotes the TSA:
(Emphasis added.)Ken:
More from the TSA:
Perhaps they should also try and establish a way to do oceanography without using a "vessel". I hope those students are very strong swimmers.
(The exceptions only apply to passenger vessels and ferries, so claiming that WHOI should just "define secure areas" is a non-starter.)
#13 - TSA can do wrong, and I'll happily admit when they do, but there is a tendency to blow these matters out of proportion...
Students can't get unfettered access to port areas - OK, they can get access to anywhere they want with an escort.
My frustration is that these events are never put in context, and the (usually) unspoken assumptions are that teh TSA actions make no sense, a [student|child|parent|granparent|etc] could never be a threat, so why did the silly TSA refuse them to walk around with electonics hanging from their clothes, deny parents to bring an amount of liquid that was far in excess of the legal limit, prevent researchers from wandering in and out of their port of interest?
The TSA is only treating Port Security in a manner consistent with the way nearly all commercial datacenters are run. Only employees are allowed access to the datacenter - visitors are allowed with an authorized guest. In some (many?) CoLo facilites, even leasing rackspace won't get you access to anywhere you want to go, and escorts may be required to access some areas...
Seems to me the easy way out of this issue is for the Oceanographers to become "employees" of the owner of the vessel, then apply for a TWIC as an employee:
From the TSA document you cite (bottom of page 154):
Seems to me that if non-US citizens can get TWICs from TSA, US employees can as well. Part of securing a TWIC ID is a security assessment and background check - there is nothing that trumps that requirement, so even a US citizen, employed by an appropriate company can be denied a TWIC because of the results of their background check.
Short answer - the students should refile as employees of the organizations that own the vessels, I suspect they'd get their TWIC IDs.
As for your suggestion that they be made employees: they're on student visas, so I'm not sure that they can be "employed" as such. I'm also less convinced than you are that "employee" is some kind of back-door password to the approval process....