(Image source from: financialexpress.com)
Farmington University created by the Department of Homeland Security in Detroit had identified 161 fake students in March and they were arrested, with an addition of 90 more students now.
ICE said, as a part of the ICE’s sting operation, federal agents have been enticing foreign-born students mostly from India to take admission in the school offering UG programs in technology and computer studies.
It was reported that students illegally reached the US with fake student visas. Besides, the University officials were none other than the federal agents.
As per the ICE’s Homeland Security Investigation, out of the 250 arrested students, 80% of them were granted voluntary departure, 20% of them got the final order of removal while some were removed by an immigration judge, the leftover 10% students have filed for relief.
The recruiters who criminally to recruit students are sentenced and there is one left who will be sentenced by the ICE in January.
An agency that was working with the US on this sting operation had mentioned the website for admission to be legitimate. To this, the attorney for the students said that they were unfairly trapped by the US.
Farmington University started operating in 2016 and more than 600 students enrolled at the University. Students were offered an F-1 visa which allowed them to study and work.
Further, even people who wanted to maintain legal immigration were royally trapped by the US, said Rahul Reddy, an attorney for the arrested students.
Besides, Rahul Reddy mentioned that the US Government made millions of dollars deceiving students and no one has filed a case against the injustice done to the students.
The Department of Justice and attorney say that students should have been aware of the University not being legitimate. One of the prosecutors states that students knew that this was a fake University.
The daily reported fake university charged around USD 2,500 per quarter for a graduate program and the average cost is USD 1,000.
This way the Indian students who legally got their student visas were also put in trouble.
A leading democratic presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren said “This is cruel and appalling,” she said in a tweet. “These students simply dreamed of getting high-quality higher education America can offer. ICE deceived and entrapped them, just to deport them,”
By Neha Makhija
