How US immigration officials set up a fake university and arrested 250 with illegal visas

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement set up a fake university, with a website and logo, to get ‘first-hand evidence of fraud’

Students who wanted to stay in the US would provide authorities with evidence they had registered at the fake institution

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The building used as the fake University of Farmington campus created by the US Department of Homeland Security as part of a sting operation. Photo: TNS

Published: 2:00pm, 29 Nov 2019Updated: 8:29pm, 29 Nov 2019

It has been 11 months since unsealed federal court documents revealed that US 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 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement marketed as a hub for STEM students who wanted to enrol 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 pretences 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 per cent of those who were arrested chose to voluntarily leave the United States, according to the ICE statement. Another 10 per cent of the University of Farmington students received a “final removal order”, officials said, either from an immigration judge or from US Customs and Border Protection.