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US federal authorities have arrested eight Indians on charges of fraudulently facilitating hundreds of immigrants to illegally remain in the United States as Students.

The following persons were arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Those who are arrested are identified as Bharath kakireddy, phanideep karnati, Prem Rampeesa, Aswanth Nune, Naveen Prathipati, Avinash Thakkallapally, Santosh Sama, and Suresh Kandala.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement “6 of them were arrested in Detroit and while the other two in Florida and Virginia.”

Special Agent Francis said, “Above suspects are helping hundreds of foreign nationals to stay in US illegally by aiding them to look as students which they most certainly were not.”

"Homeland Security Investigations special agents uncovered a nationwide network that grossly exploited US immigration laws,” he said.

According to the indictments, from February 2017 to January 2019, a group of foreign national are conspiring to allow them to stay and work in United states by enrolling them into University.

Unknown to the them, “Farmington University was operated by special agents of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) as part of an undercover operation,”

ICE said. “The eight suspects charged are accused of helping enroll the students in exchange for cash, kickbacks and tuition credits as part of the "pay to stay" scheme.”

“Homeland Security Investigations remains vigilant to ensure the integrity of US immigration laws and will continue to investigate this and other transnational crimes,” Francis said.

The accused and recruiters assisted foreign "students" in fraudulently obtaining immigration related papers from this university and creating fake records, including transcripts, for the purpose of deceiving immigration authorities.

“The suspects intended to help and hide their students from United States immigration authorities for money and collectively profited in excess of a quarter of a million dollars as a result of their scheme,” the ICE said.

"We are all aware that international students can be a valuable asset to our country, but as this case shows, the well-intended international student visa program can also be exploited and abused, stated US Attorney Matthew Schneider.

The university was used by foreign nationals as pay to stay scheme which in turn allowing them to remain in US as full-time students in an "approved" educational program.

“Foreign citizens who enrolled and made tuition payments to the university knew that they would not attend accrual classes, earn credits or make progress towards an actual degree in a particular field of study a pay to stay scheme,”the indictment said.

The Indictment said, “Their motive was to help and maintain their student visa status and to get work permit under CPT Program.

-Sai Kumar