ICE Says Students Duped By Its Fake College Sting Should Have Known It Was A Sting

from the so-are-you-going-to-start-issuing-tuition-refunds-or-what dept

Those assholes at ICE are still at it. For most of the past year, ICE's fake college sting has resulted in a long string of arrests, but not very many prosecutions.

The sting involved a fictitious university set up by ICE to ensnare foreigners seeking to extend their US stays by complying with the law. That's the underlying truth that was dismantled by ICE's fiction. Visitors on student visas are allowed to stay in the country as long as they continue their studies.

ICE's fake college looked like a legitimate option, seeing as the agency had talked an accreditation agency into giving it the official thumbs-up as a certified education entity. The fake college had an online presence and a physical building. It also had staffing that accepted tuition money before turning applicants in to ICE agents.

ICE netted 250 arrests from this sting, with most duped students opting for voluntary departure. The agency is being sued for its fakery -- something it has consistently spun as foreigners bypassing the law to stay in the country. But this is what the law allows them to do and ICE is punishing them for doing it.

Very few of the arrests deal with fraudulent actions by students. Instead, criminal charges have targeted a few middlemen who took cash from visitors on student visas with promises to help them avoid being deported. Out of ICE's 250 arrests, only eight resulted in criminal charges. The bulk of the sting operation netted nothing more than administrative charges, ending some students' stay in the country.

ICE insists the US government is the real victim here. The victims of ICE's scam university aren't actually victims, according to ICE. They're actually crafty operators gaming the country's visa system.

Attorneys for ICE and the Department of Justice maintain that the students should have known it was not a legitimate university because it did not have classes in a physical location.

It's as if online classes have never existed. This doesn't actually show intent. It just shows how well the fake university was constructed by ICE -- something that looked legitimate until the arrests started. Attorneys we're paying for are helping ICE play the victim after duping students out of thousands of dollars in tuition and fees before setting them up with deportation.

"Their true intent could not be clearer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Helms wrote in a sentencing memo this month for Rampeesa, one of the eight recruiters, of the hundreds of students enrolled. "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."

Most of this simply isn't true. And what is true isn't indicative of trustworthy government employees or agencies. As mentioned above, the fake university obtained accreditation from a nationwide service and the DHS's own website listed the fake university as an option for students in the US on visas.

In addition, students who did wonder about the lack of classes were unable to get any straight answers from the ICE agents posing as college staff. Those that did think this wasn't legit tried to transfer out. This fact was ignored by ICE, who arrested students transferring out along with those it claims were gaming the visa system by staying enrolled at its fake college.

This ugly incident should be a permanent stain on the agency. Instead, an effort that began during the Obama administration will be portrayed as a victory over thieving foreigners by the DOJ, ICE, and a president who thinks the world will be a better place if everyone else in it stays the hell out of the United States.

Filed Under: accreditation, deportation, dhs, fake college, ice, immigration, sting operation, student visas

ICE Set Up A Fake College To Bust Immigrants For Trying To Legally Stay In The Country While They Earned Degrees

from the ridding-the-country-of-dangerous-degree-holders dept

We already know ICE can't find enough dangerous immigrants to satisfy President Trump's absurd fantasies of a nation overrun by foreign murderers, rapists, and terrorists. But it appears the agency has completely given up on its "worst of the worst" targeting. According to an unsealed indictment and recently-released ICE emails, the agency blew a lot of man hours and taxpayer money on rounding up [squints at court documents] immigrants attempting to further their educations.

The Department of Homeland Security set up a fake university in Farmington Hills to target foreign students who wanted to stay in the U.S. without proper authorization, according to federal indictments unsealed in Detroit on Wednesday.

Eight people were arrested and indicted in an immigration fraud case for conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harboring aliens for profit, said the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Matthew Schneider.

Six of them were arrested in metro Detroit, one in Florida and another in Virginia. The students enrolled at the fake university with the intent to obtain jobs under a student visa program called CPT (Curricular Practical Training) that allows students to work in the U.S., said prosecutors.

This is ICE's take on the arrests. What actually happened here is something bordering on entrapment.

The students seeking to attend the fake university had expiring visas. They were allowed to stay in the US and work as long as they continued their education. As long as these students continued working towards approved degrees, they were allowed to stay in the country. A limited supply of H-1B visas means attending school or exiting the country for most of the immigrants involved.

The government portrays this as "staying in the US without proper authorization." But the university offered proper authorization under this immigration program. Rather than do nothing and sweep up students whose visas were expired, ICE decided to set up a bogus university as a honeypot for foreign students working against the clock to get their stays extended.

The emails obtained by the Detroit Free Press show an ugly, calculated move by ICE to both rob immigrants of their money and their chance to stay in the United States. The agency went so far as to obtain bogus accreditation from a national accreditation agency in order to better dupe unaware immigrants.

Here's a partial list of the deception ICE engaged in to round up foreign students.

Undercover investigators with the Department of Homeland Security registered the University of Farmington with the state of Michigan as a university using a fake name.

At the request of DHS, a national accreditation agency listed the University of Farmington as being accredited in order to help deceive prospective students.

The university was also placed by federal investigators on the website of ICE as an university approved by them under a government program for foreign students known as SEVIS (Student and Exchange Visitor Program)

All of this led prospective students to believe they were dealing with a real university offering programs that would allow them to stay, study, and work in the US legally. In addition to taking $100 application fees from over 600 students, ICE also hoovered up an untold amount of tuition fees.

"I was told by the students, that the university reassured them that classes would be held and everything would be fine and that they are following the immigration laws," said Prashanthi Reddy, an attorney in New York City. "The students paid them the tuition fees and were trapped once they realized that classes were not being held, as some didn't have the money to transfer and pay tuition at another university."

Students were told by ICE's fake university they were complying with immigration laws by applying for continuing education. This was buttressed by the bogus accreditation obtained by the agency. Students thought they were taking the next step to extend their stays in the US -- all of it completely legal -- until it became apparent the fake university would never be holding classes or handing out degrees.

While there may have been a few people taking advantage of immigrants by either lying to them about their visa status or charging fees to route them into another university, a majority of those swept up in ICE's sting were following the law. If the government says you can stay and work in the country as long as you continue your education, students applying to ICE's bogus university were in full compliance. All told, 149 duped students were arrested, but only eight of them are actually facing charges for what's detailed in the indictment.

This is a horrific abuse of trust -- aided and abetted by a national accreditation agency. The government lied repeatedly to people trying to follow the law, took their money, and basically arrested them for failing to figure out it wasn't a real university.

Filed Under: accreditation, dhs, fake college, fake university, ice, immigrants, visa

Best Reporters On The Supreme Court Forced To Grovel Before Competitors To Prove They're Worthy Of A Press Pass

from the ridiculousness-defined dept

Back in April, we wrote about the travesty of the very best reporters on everything Supreme Court related, SCOTUSblog, still not having a press pass to the Supreme Court. The issue is somewhat complicated, in part because of the seriously arcane credentialing process involved. Basically, the Supreme Court looks kindly on reporters who already are credentialed by the Senate. But the Senate credentialing process involves the "Standing Committee of Correspondents" who get to decide who else to let in. The committee, basically, are journalists who have already been let into the club deciding who else can join them. When you set up a guild that lets you exclude innovative and disruptive players, guess what happens?

While the Senate had allowed a SCOTUSblog reporter, Lyle Denniston, in the past, it revoked that credential and said that it wouldn't give him or SCOTUSblog a new credential. While they don't say why, the main issue seems to be that the blog's publisher is Tom Goldstein, a practicing lawyer who does, on occasion, practice before the Supreme Court. Yet, there's a clear separation between the reporters covering the various cases and Goldstein's legal work. In fact, SCOTUSblog will not cover cases Goldstein's firm is involved in. And no one seems to deny that the reporters who work for the blog do great work.

In an effort that seemed to only highlight the ridiculousness of the situation, the "Standing Committee of Correspondents" decided to hold "a hearing" about the issue, which seemed merely designed to make them look as pompous and out of touch as possible. Or, at the very least, to show what happens when petty people are put in a position of power over others. Goldstein notes that the "hearing" seemed to involve all of their (apparently jealous) competitors on the "Standing Committee" digging up any reasons they could think of to deny them a press pass:

But the Standing Committee seems committed – having previously granted us a credential – to reaffirm its decision revoking our pass.  In listening to our appeal, which the chair labeled a “hearing,” the Committee members carefully divided up materials that they could use in an effort to undermine our qualifications.  (My favorite by far is that, unbeknownst to us, the Gallery’s staff director came to our office to take pictures of our signage and doors.)  No member of the Committee even acknowledged the recognition by others that the blog is engaged in high-quality journalism.  The closest it came was the chair’s firm statement that the Committee had a duty not to bow to “public pressure.”  That seems to miss the point.

It appears to be nothing more than a guild process to exclude competitors.

The main point that critics of SCOTUSblog have, concerning Goldstein's day job, is that publications are supposed to be "editorially independent from any organization that is 'not principally a news organization.'" And, specifically, they are supposed to avoid giving press credentials to someone who may be lobbying Congress. But Goldstein quickly points out that the Committee appears to have no problems violating those rules for other publications that either are controlled by foreign governments and/or large companies:

• Several credentialed organizations are government agencies:  Xinhua News Agency, the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China; Saudi Press Agency, an organ of the Saudi Ministry of Information; Itar-Tass News Agency, the central information agency of Russia;  Akahata, the official paper of the Japanese Communist Party; and Notimex Mexican News Agency, which has an executive editor appointed by the President of Mexico and a governing board of representatives of five government agencies.
• Several credentialed organizations are affiliated with commercial businesses directly related to the subjects they cover:  Energy Daily has several credentialed reporters, and it is owned by a substantial provider of energy consulting services, IHS, Inc.; LRP Publications has credentialed reporters, and also puts on trade shows and conferences; MLEX has credentialed reporters, and provides clients with “Market Insight” and “Predictive Analysis of Regulatory Risk.”

Goldstein wonders how it could be that SCOTUSblog, which is widely respected for its reporting on the Court, somehow creates "a greater risk of entanglement of journalism and other activities than state-sponsored news organizations."

A NY Times article about this quotes someone noting that the whole setup is one of "the fox guarding the henhouse." Though, it's not even clear that's the right analogy. This seems more like petty tyrants using their power to exclude someone who often does their job better than they do. And the whole show trial aspect of forcing SCOTUSblog to attend a "hearing" where a giant stack of "evidence" is presented against them merely confirms the travesty of the whole situation. The members of the Standing Committee of Correspondents should be ashamed of themselves. Just admit the facts and grant SCOTUSblog a press pass.

Filed Under: accreditation, journalism, lyle denniston, press, press pass, scotusblog, senate, standing committee of correspondents, supreme court, tom goldstein