‘It’s mentally and physically torturing’: concern for Indian students arrested at fake US school
- ‘Farmington University’ was set up to ensnare student visa schemers, but many arrested were innocent victims from impoverished backgrounds, group says
Officials from an Indian-American cultural group say they are concerned about the arrests of Indian students who were enrolled at a phoney university in Detroit that was created by the government to bust an immigration scam.
Federal authorities in January announced that the University of Farmington was fake and created by the Department of Homeland Security to catch people making money by helping foreigners live in the US on student visas while enrolled at bogus schools.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 160 foreign students on civil immigration violations, agency spokesman Khaalid Walls told the Detroit Free Press.
Many of the students have been removed from the country or are in the process of removal, Walls said. More students could be arrested or removed since enforcement action are still going on, he said.
Most of the 600 students enrolled were from Telugu-speaking regions of India. The Indian government has said it is closely monitoring the situation and expressed concerns that some of the students may have been duped by recruiters.