ICE arrests 90 more students at fake university in Michigan

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/11/27/ice-arrested-250-foreign-students-fake-university-metro-detroit/4277686002/

by ericzawo • 7 years ago

41 35 7 years ago

freep.com

Aperocky• 7 years ago

So the US homeland of Security set up a fake university, put it in the official accreditation website, and then arrest international students when they apply and join? WTH?

Kailou• 7 years ago

Yeah i think i'm reading that wrong, but it seems like the students are attempting to study in the country and applying to University through legal means, then getting deported as it's a fake university.

I'm clearly missing something here.

rufus_32• 7 years ago

The "students" were enrolling in a university that had "had no teachers, classes, or educational services" as a means to game the F-1 visa program. Their goal was to falsely claim they were enrolled in education in order to avoid deportation.

theandrewbailey• 7 years ago

An accreditation agency that was working with the U.S. on its sting operation also listed the university as legitimate.

Looks like that agency shouldn't be trusted anymore. Name and shame.

rasz• 7 years ago

"While 'enrolled' at the University, one hundred percent of the foreign citizen students never spent a single second in a classroom. If it were truly about obtaining an education, the University would not have been able to attract anyone, because it had no teachers, classes, or educational services."

jjeaff3• 7 years ago

But is there any evidence that they were told this before immigrating?

According to the article, some of the students arrested are students who transferred to other, legitimate universities once they found out there were no classes.

anderber• 7 years ago

This can't be the best use of resources or money in our gov...

Fjolsvith2• 7 years ago

You can't argue that its not getting results, though.

jjeaff3• 7 years ago

I'm confused at how it's getting results. It seems that it is attracting students over from foreign countries then arresting them.

Or are these students people who were already in the US illegally?

abduhl• 7 years ago

The article says that they received millions in tuition payments from these students so it sounds likely the program is at least partially self funding. In which case, this is a great use of government money.

olliej3• 7 years ago

Yes, it turns out theft by the government is very profitable when the government chooses not to charge itself with theft.

zb1plus• 7 years ago

Our tax dollars at work... It sickens me that the Federal Government is allowed to waste money on this type of things while there are people dying from a lack of access to insulin here in the the USA becasuse of the cost. Why not simply let people come and work here if they so choice and use the taxes we collect to support our failing education and social services system. #AbolishICE

rufus_32• 7 years ago

Should American workers be happy to "simply let people come and work here" when their wages have been stagnant for decades? https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us...

amanaplanacanal• 7 years ago

I dunno. We have so many things that are holding down wages right now, including globalization, automation, and changes to tax laws which make it easier for profits to go to capital instead of labor. Do we actually have good evidence that immigration has much of an effect?

Jamwinner• 7 years ago

Border security is not casual racism. Nobody takes seriously a notion to stop having borders in a nation literally defined by them. While many actions of the current system are reprehensible, the response is reform, or even a clean-sheet design. But loss of sovergnity is not on the table.

VistaBrokeMyPC• 7 years ago

Thank you, and well said. It bothers me when I get called a racist and a xenophobe for saying that border security is necessary, but the current admin has taken it too far. It's not black and white! We can't let everyone in. That just doesn't work - some security is necessary. Turning people away for vague reasons or race/country of origin when they otherwise would be let in is a whole other can of worms though.

nighthawk24• 7 years ago

You might want to learn about the country specific caps and how bills like S.386 were passed in congress buy blocked by Sen. Durbin to keep the "casual racism" going.

This is also the reason why people from India enroll in colleges that have weekend classes in order to maintain their legal status while in-between jobs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6LGNijSCCc

downerending• 7 years ago

Idealistically, it seems we could just let everyone do what they want, and it will all work out. As we're seeing over the last few years, this doesn't work.

Lobby to change the laws to whatever they "should" be, and enforce them. Personally I'm behind whatever Congress decides, but I'm very much not behind lawlessness.

jka2• 7 years ago

There's more information on the background of the university on Wikipedia[0], and also archived copies of their website and admissions policy on the Internet Archive[1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Farmington

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20170302161735/http://university...

pryffwyd• 7 years ago

If such fake universities exist, why aren't these resources being spent to identity and shutter them instead? If they don't, why manufacture this elaborate heist instead of deporting the students in the first place when their visa ran out? Wouldn't it be more cost effective to just pore through immigration records and do some on-site checks to find a "real fake university" than to create one?

lm284692• 7 years ago

but since the University of Farmington was later revealed to be a creation of federal agents

diebeforei485• 7 years ago

Lots of info in this interview: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/why-d...

Because a very small % of folks are prone to fraudulent behavior, this is actually a effective way to root it out.

lm284692• 7 years ago

the University of Farmington was later revealed to be a creation of federal agents
which cost about $12,000 on average in tuition and fees per year.
The fake university is believed to have collected millions of dollars from the unsuspecting students.

Between that and half of the current US gov being corrupt to an unprecedented level I wonder were all the "A well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free State" guys are. This is 1970s eastern europe level of power abuse.

fivethr33• 7 years ago

The "well regulate militia" loves and supports Trump.

yumraj2• 7 years ago

Isn't this entrapment? [0]

If so, any self-respecting judge should have allowed the students to stay or at least refund their money back plus some more...

[0] https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/entrapment-basics-33...

pkaye• 7 years ago

I feel like they should have "safe harbor" provision where if student report fake universities on first being aware, they should be able to safely transfer to another university.

ICE arrests 90 more students at fake university in Michigan

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