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In February, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it would extend security clearances for foreign students and scientists in some science and technology fields so that visas obtained under the Visas Mantis program will generally remain current for four years instead of having to be renewed annually. The program, which aims to prevent terrorists from gaining access to sensitive nuclear, biomedical, and computing information, has been criticized for imposing layers of red tape that make it difficult for legitimate scholars to obtain security clearances.