This year, a new registration program prevented 200 foreigners from entering the country with questionable student visas, Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary in the Homeland Security Department, said last week.

Despite some reservations about infringements on civil liberties, some administrators and students at Penn State like the new system.

The Student and Exchange Visa Information Service spots fraud by comparing a student's visa information with the records at his or her American university.

It relies on electronic databases and barcodes, ensuring that foreigners cannot enter the country with re-created government or university documents and forged signatures as they could before, said Masume Assaf, Penn State associate director of international programs.

Before the database system was implemented in January, the Office of International Students and Scholars saw between six and 12 forged documents per year, Assaf said.

Since then, the office has seen none.

Government officials plan to charge foreign students $100 each for the maintenance of the system.

Maureen Costello, a Penn State foreign student advisor, said the old student documents were easily forged. Many immigrants took advantage of this inadequacy in hopes of gaining a better life.

"They are desperate people that will do anything to get into the United States," she said.

Both Assaf and Costello have seen their names used on forged documents. "Somewhere in this pile," Assaf said as she pointed to her cluttered desk, "... I have a letter on Princeton letterhead with my signature."

Costello said a lot of forgeries come from countries toward which the United States has imposed strict visa regulations.

"People were making a business out of it," she said. "It was a business of 'come here and get your document.' "

Costello added she is surprised that only 200 people have been caught so far. "I would say they have that many in a month," she said.

The issue of fraudulent visas was highlighted by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Two of the 19 hijackers entered the country with student visas.

Ameer Ali, vice-president of the Muslim Student Association, said although illegal immigrants are breaking the law, most are not terrorists. He is wary of the program and its method of tracking foreign students. "We have to make sure that we don't compromise any of the civil liberties that this country was founded on," he said.

Despite Ali's reservations, some students are glad the system makes it harder to misuse Penn State.

"It puts a negative spin on the school a little because somebody might think we allowed them to do that," Joe Anuta (sophomore-engineering) said.

Jenn Asplint (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) felt similarly.

"If they don't have the right documents to get into the country then they don't belong here and by [trying to use] Penn State's name, they are lowering the university," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.