EXCLUSIVE: Pakistani Student Visa Holders Spark Legislative Action, National Security Concerns

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL — Indiana state Rep. Andrew Ireland is sounding the alarm on Pakistani and other foreign students imported by Indiana University to fill American jobs in its medical school.

This move from the university prompted Ireland to not only shed light on the issue, but also introduce legislation that would cut taxpayer funding for the state-run university if it continues to undermine American talent, and tackle the hiring practices he suspects may be at fault.

“IU is home to the country’s largest medical school,” Ireland said in an interview with the Daily Signal. “We actually have the largest graduating class of medical students at any university in the country.”

“But somehow, we still can’t seem to find Americans apparently that are qualified for these positions,” he added. “Or you can have the kind of the opposite conclusion of perhaps there’s something going on with their hiring practices, because we continue to pick foreign nationals over Americans for these really important opportunities.”

Ireland’s remarks come after the university hired seven foreign-born candidates to fill jobs at the school.

Four of those candidates currently live in Pakistan, a country Ireland described as a “nation of concern.”

As reported by The College Fix, international students from these nations have caused disruptions at American colleges, including championing Hamas and preventing their Jewish peers from attending class, among other things.

“I think it certainly is a national security angle to this too,” he told the Daily Signal. “We have this thing called the IU Muslim Philanthropy Initiative. But now, it turns out that the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative had partnered with this group called Hayat Yolu, a group that the Treasury Department actually noted as a sham charity working with everything from the Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas to basically funnel money to them.”

“And so IU, through this Muslim Philanthropy Initiative they were running, was partnering with this organization that ultimately was funneling this money to terror groups,” he added.

After the program’s financial motives were brought to the university’s attention by Ireland, the institution moved to put an end to the program. However, he fears programs like these are yet to be exposed, and importing more students who could be a part of these programs could lead to devastating consequences.

“You know, leadership there took me very seriously. They’ve put a stop to that program. But I think it’s ultimately indicative of kind of the broader problem we have at universities right now is that I don’t think we have a great handle on a lot of these foreign students.”

“We have people that, you know, clearly do not have the country’s best interest in mind, and yet we’re letting them right in the front door.”

That isn’t the only national security concern the representative fears could come from importing foreign students from countries of concern.

As reported by The College Fix, the representative cited the example of a Chinese international student using his placement at Indiana University to smuggle biological materials into the United States.

The student, a former IU postdoc on a J-1 visa who smuggled E.Coli in a package falsely labeled as “women’s underwear in his suitcase and tried to bring it into the country illegally from China,” he stated.

“I mean, it’s surprising to me that we’re doing any sort of biological research with a Chinese national at our public university. I think that’s damning in itself,” he concluded.