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

June 6,2008

The Honorable Michael Chertoff
Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
245 Murray Lane, S. W.
Washington, D.C. 20528

Dear Secretary Chertoff:

It recently came to my attention that a number of foreign graduate oceanography students who had applied to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) to allow them access to American ports were denied this credential and told that they have been determined to "pose a security threat." (See attached letter dated May 1,2008 from TSA to one of the applicants [name deleted].)' A "security threat" is defined in TSA's regulations as someone "whom TSA determines or suspects of posing a threat to national security; to transportation security; or of terr~rism."T~h is stigmatizing determirlation. by TSA was not based on any such finding, but simply on the fact that the students' visas (F-1 and J-1) were not on TSA's list of eligible visa categories for a TWIC.

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