Students blocked from US meeting

US border security recently prevented two Chinese-born University of Toronto environmental toxicology graduate students from presenting papers at the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) in Austin, Texas. Despite applying early for visas, booking their hotel, purchasing air tickets, and preparing their posters and presentations for the sessions, scheduled for November 9–12, 2003, the two graduate students never left Canada. The two students—Hang Xiao and Yushan Su—told The Scientist this week how, after receiving the invitation to SETAC on September 20, they found US Consular officials in Toronto concerned over any work involving toxic chemicals. But, Xiao said, “I only do some modeling research and [don't] use those so-called toxic chemicals at all.” Xiao studies how persistent organic pollutants partition between the air and organic surfaces, while Su studies environmental monitoring of the effect of pesticides on the environment. SETAC's president sent officials a letter explaining the conference and its value in shaping US public policy. “Both had been to the same meeting the year before,” their supervisor, chemistry professor Frank Wania told university officials at the time. “They followed the very same procedures, and there were no problems at all.” But it took 3 months—until the end of December—to process security and background checks on the two—well past the past the conference date. “They finally told us that our request was on hold because we [now had] no reason to visit the US,” Xiao said. “We missed [a] very good opportunity to present our results and get feedback from experts in this area.” Because of privacy issues, a spokesperson for the US Consulate in Toronto told The Scientist he was unable to give specific details of the two University of Toronto students' cases. “Every country has the right to determine who enters the country,” he said. “ There can be delays for people trying to enter Canada, or many other countries as well. We try to turn it around as quickly as we can.” “The turnaround time varies,” he said. “It depends on the situation, the purpose of the visit, and what country an applicant is a citizen of. If applicants were, for example, from an Allied country and applied from their own country, then they might get it [visa clearance] right away.” “The two are not citizens of Canada; they are citizens of China,” and fall into a category that requires “special” handling procedures. In general, the spokesperson said, “we recommend that if you are not citizens or Landed Immigrants [of Canada] then you should apply for a visa in the country in which you are a citizen.” “I think most academics would anticipate the possibility of visiting the US [for a conference] and would have applied before they left [their home country],” he said. “We advise people not to book a ticket for travel to the US until they obtain a visa.” The students were forced to absorb more than CDN $1000 (USD $750) in registration fees and flight and accommodations costs. Both of their department chairs were outraged and sent a memo, on December 3, to their respective vice deans. “This is about free trade in the intellectual realms, and I think that is extremely important,” said professor Douglas Reeve, chair of chemical engineering and applied chemistry. “I think it is extremely important to Canadian researchers in science and engineering that we should be able to have ready access to the American market and the American scene.” Scott A. Mabury, chair of chemistry, said educating consular officials might make a difference. “I think it's a real practical issue of border officials making fairly rash decisions without any knowledge about their impact on a career or certainly on the freedom of inquiry aspect. This could go anywhere. It's not country based, it's subject based, and subjects can drastically broaden.” Vivek Goel, the University of Toronto's vice provost of the faculty, called the matter “very serious” and said that “the normal exchange of scientific knowledge and the conduct of research is at risk.” The university will not let the matter drop, Goel told The Scientist : [We] “will pursue it with the US Consulate here in Toronto. We will also try to continue to raise awareness with colleagues at US institutions.” “Many of the major initiatives in life sciences, such as genomics, involve international collaboration,” Goel said. These policies risk seriously impeding such initiatives.” The security policies, he concluded, “[affect] people's ability to explore questions they're interested in. For junior faculty, that really impacts on their progress because they need to get international recognition for their scholarship and in a lot of disciplines, many of the international meetings will be in the US.” The two academics aren't the first from the University of Toronto to fall afoul of antiterrorism regulations. In October 2002, Javad Mostaghimi accepted an invitation to chair a session at a workshop sponsored by the US National Science Foundation. Born in Iran, he found that the US National Security Entry Exit Registration System required Canadian citizens born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, or Syria to be fingerprinted, photographed, and questioned upon each entry into the United States. Mostaghimi has said that he will not return to the United States until he feels welcome. Editor's note: See a letter on this story.

Students blocked from US meeting

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