Student Visa Security Gaps Exposed With 6,000 Foreigners Missing In America In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the 9/11 Commission made a specific recommendation to tighten up the student visa program since one of the hijackers was in the country on on over-extended student visa. It appears the recommendation was not heeded. Even after congressional interest in making changes that would make the student visa program more difficult to be accessed by those who would do us harm, tens of thousands of student visa holders overstay their time every year. Currently, there are over 9,000 schools eligible for foreign students wishing to study in the U.S. Along with traditional universities there are also beauty schools, massage schools, and trades that are no longer relevant to American life. There are also approved schools that actually do not teach students. And so it is that over 1.2 million foreign students enter the United States every year on student visas, a number which has doubled in the last ten years. Most are here for legitimate purposes, but the Department of Homeland Security is currently trying to track over 6,000 of the missing who were determined to be of concern. According to the government, they vanished. Since one of the 9/11 hijackers was here on a student visa as well as the driver of the van packed with explosives that destroyed the World Trade Center garage in 1993, this is a security gap that endangers the American homeland. It seems that anyone can come to America on a student visa and then just blend in. H/T ABC News 