ICE set up a fake university, then arrested 250 people to whom it gave visa papers
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
It has been 11 months since unsealed federal court documents revealed that U.S. immigration officials created a fake university to lure foreign-born college students who were trying to stay in the country on student visas that might not have been legal.
The University of Farmington, a fictitious school that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement marketed as a hub for STEM students who wanted to enroll and not "interrupt their careers," had a fake name, a fake website and a fake motto on its fake seal. "Scientia et Labor," the seal said, which means "Knowledge and Work."
In January 2019, eight people who allegedly worked as "recruiters" for the school and collectively helped at least 600 students remain in the country under false pretenses were charged with federal conspiracy. At the time, the Detroit News reported that dozens of University of Farmington students - many of them Indian nationals - were arrested for immigration violations and faced deportation.
Now, according to ICE, that number has jumped to about 250 students. Those arrests took place between January and July, ICE said in a statement first reported by the Detroit Free Press and obtained by The Washington Post. Most of the arrests happened in February, immigration officials said.
Nearly 80% of those who were arrested chose to voluntarily leave the United States, according to the ICE statement. Another 10% of the University of Farmington students received a "final removal order," officials said, either from an immigration judge or from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The final 10% of students have challenged their deportations, either by filing for legal relief or by contesting their removals with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the statement said.
Seven of the eight recruiters, all in their 20s or 30s, have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison time, Detroit ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls told the Free Press. The newspaper reported the names of those recruiters and their sentences as follows: Barath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary, Florida, 18 months; Suresh Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Virginia, 18 months; Santosh Sama, 28, of Fremont, California, 24 months; Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 15 months; Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta, 12 months; Naveen Prathipati, 26, of Dallas, 12 months.
Prem Rampeesa, 27, was sentenced last week to one year in prison, though he has already served 295 days and so will likely be released in two or three months and then deported back to India, his attorney Wanda Cal told the Free Press.
Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky, will be sentenced in January 2020, the Free Press reported.
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Lmao this is crazy. Kind of like the cops sending people with warrants that they won a trip.
Seems like a dirty trick to me.
But a funny one!
It's surprising how most of them just said, okay you got me and went back to there country of origin.
How is this type of sting operation different than the FBI using fake planning and fake bombs to entice White Nationalists or terrorists to identify themselves for arrest?
Whatever means it takes.
A simple computer search would have shown it was a bogus university.
Well seeing it was government sponsored how well would a computer search do.
Good work