The U.S. State Department is proposing what it calls “significant and controversial” changes to a foreign exchange program that has been exploited by unscrupulous labor brokers and organized criminals in the sex industry, said an internal memo obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. The Jan. 18 memo comes more than a year after an AP investigation uncovered widespread abuses in the J-1 Summer Work Travel program, which annually allows more than 100,000 foreign college students to work in the U.S. for up to four months. It came from Adam Ereli, assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and was addressed to Assistant Secretary of State Ann Stock.
“The reforms we are undertaking will significantly reduce the opportunities for wrongdoing and catch it much more quickly when it does occur,” the memo said…