250 Indian students held in Fake Varsity Sting Operation in US

New York: A total of about 250 students, mostly from India, have been arrested in a sting operation by US immigration officials who set up a fake university in the sting operation, according to media reports. About 90 students were arrested in recent months in addition to the 161 the officials said they had arrested in March after the crackdown on those enrolled at the fake institution called Farmington University, the Detroit Free Press reported on Wednesday.

The institution was set up by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) section of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) originally to catch those who recruited students on false premises and students got caught up in the operation.

Farmington University had no real faculty or facilities and after getting admission there, students were able to work elsewhere using its practical training programme.

The crackdown began in January when about 100 students were arrested in early morning raids, the American Telugu Association reported at that time. It said that warrants had been issued for 600 students.

Around the same time, the DHS filed charges in a federal court in Detroit against eight persons who allegedly acted as recruiters for the scam.

In court documents, the DHS admitted that it set up Farmington University with undercover agents as staff in Farmington Hills, Michigan, to target foreign students who were staying in the US without proper authorization.

Prosecutors called it a “pay-to-stay” scam because the students paid the recruiters to get documents from the fake university to enable them to stay on in a student visa without attending classes.

Farmington was the second fake university known to have been created by ICE for sting operations against student visa scams.

Earlier in 2013, ICE had set up the University of Northern New Jersey and arrested 21 people in 2016 and canceled the visas, 1,076 students, most of them from India and China, involved with the university. (IANS)

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