US tightens security on student visas after marathon bombing

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered border agents to begin verifying visas for every international student arriving in the country, the first change in policy since the Boston Marathon bombing.

The procedure, ordered by a senior official at US Customs and Border Protection on Thursday, was the first major security change directly linked to the April 15 bombing and comes after it was revealed one of the students accused of hiding evidence, Azamat Tazhayakov, from Kazakhstan, may have returned to the country without a valid visa.

Meanwhile, funeral arrangements are being made for bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died of gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to the head, a funeral director said yesterday.

Funeral home owner Peter Stefan has the 26-year-old’s body and read details from his death certificate, which cites “gunshot wounds of torso and extremities” as the cause of death and has the time of death as 1.35am on April 19, four days after bombs went off at the marathon finishing line, killing three people and injuring hundreds more.

The body of the ethnic Chechen, who arrived in the US with his brother about a decade ago, was released to the family on Thursday and funeral arrangements were being made.

Mr Stefan said everybody deserved a dignified burial and he was prepared for further protests after dozens of people gathered outside his business, unhappy with his decision to take the funeral.

He said: “My problem here is trying to find a grave site. A lot of people don’t want to do it. I keep bringing up the point of Lee Harvey Oswald, Tomothy McVeigh or Ted Bundy. Somebody had to do those, too.”

Tsarnaev died after a gunfight with US authorities, who had launched a massive manhunt for him and his brother, Dzhokhar, who is in police custody. Police said Tamerlan had run out of ammunition before his younger brother dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing. He was captured less than a day after his brother’s death.