The US Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) unit previously created a fake university with the objective of revealing immigration fraud. So far, 21 individuals have been arrested.
The fake school, called the University of Northern New Jersey, intended to expose brokers for foreigners who wanted to stay in the United States. Federal agents also created a fake website and pretended as administrators. They communicated with the suspects and recorded the conversations. They discovered that foreigners have been paying to extended their visas for several years. The agents subsequently revealed the suspects’ illegal actions, resulting to their arrest.
The suspects brokered over 1,000 foreigners who wanted to maintain student and work visas and stay in the country indefinitely.
The BBC reports that according to U.S. officials, the accused were aware that the University of Northern New Jersey was inexistent. However, they also did not know that it was actually operated by immigration agents. The middlemen created fake documents like attendance records, transcripts and diplomas for the paying immigrants.
There were actually no teachers, classes, school activities, curriculum and programs that would warrant actual attendance and participation in the said fake university, stated the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Fake jobs and IT projects at the university were also made so that other clients could maintain illegal work visas. More fake documents and contracts were made in the process.
The university was set up in September 2013, and has since garnered about 1,076 foreign students, who were described by the ICE as willing participants in the fraudulent scheme.
According to immigration officials, they will also deal with the nationals who were dealt with by the suspects, although they will not be prosecuted. Many of the students came from India and China. Several of them entered the U.S. through legal means to attend other schools using non-immigrant student visas. However, when the visas were close to expiring, the students asked for help from recruitment firms to enroll in the fake university that will allow them to remain in the country until they finish their second course. Most of the suspects were legal residents and naturalized American citizens.
“This was just another stop on the ‘pay-to’stay’ tour,” said Paul Fishman, U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
Mail Online stated that 19 have been charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and conspiracy to harbor aliens for profit. Two were charged with creating false statements.
