According to the US District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan of South Division, at least eight people who either are Indian citizens or are of Indian origin have been arrested across cities in the U.S. in connection with visa fraud charges. A statement from the office of U.S. Attorney for the District, Matthew Schneider, said that six arrests were made in Detroit, one in Florida and one in Virginia.
In addition to the eight, an unspecified number of Indian students have also been detained by the Department of Homeland Security in connection with the above case.
On Wednesday, the indictments unsealed charged the eight individuals referred to as “a group of foreign citizens”, with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harbour aliens for profit.
The indictment said that the Homeland Security Investigations agents had posed as owners and employees of the University of Farmington in Farmington Hills, Michigan, approximately from June 2017 to January 2019 as part of an undercover operation to uncover immigration fraud. Students would pay to enrol in the University and give the appearance that they were in approved educational programs and are making normal progress towards getting a degree. However, the University neither had faculty nor any classes and the students were very well aware of this, says the indictment. The “pay to stay” scheme allowed them to maintain their student visa (F-1) status and obtain work permits as part of the Curricular Practical Training (CPT) option open to qualified F-1 visa students.
“We are all aware that international students can be a valuable asset to our country, but as this case shows, the well-intended international student visa program can also be exploited and abused”, Mr. Schneider said in a statement.