Fake University Scam Blots Out Future of Hundreds of Indian students in US

Tri-Valley University of Pleasanton, California, in the famed Silicon Valley of US has been closed down after being charged with massive immigration fraud, money laundering charges, and involvement in several other crimes by the federal authorities. Out of 1,555 students enrolled at the university, as many as 95 per cent are Indians, and most of them are from Andhra Pradesh. The US authorities suspect that the university misused its visa permits and helped foreign nationals acquire immigration status illegally.

The Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) also alleged that students enrolled in the residential and online courses of the university that were shown living in California on paper, actually worked ‘illegally' in other parts of the country as far as Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The university records showed that more than half of these students lived in a single apartment in Sunnyvale California, only to conceal the fact that they did not actually lived in California and maintain their immigration status by proving that they were attending their classes physically.

Slammed as a ‘sham university', the Tri-Valley University charged lakhs of rupees from the students for their student visa and work permits. Now, these students not only face deportation but are also undergoing intense interrogation. Many of them have also been issued radio ankle trackers that have to be worn at all times to track their movements. The Indian government has termed these tags ‘inhuman' and asked US authorities not to treat its students like criminals. However, federal investigating authorities have defended the move saying that this is a standard procedure for those under interrogation and is a reasonable alternative used to avoid detaining students in question by putting them under arrest.

The interrogation has caused panic in the Indian student community in the US and many of the students from Andhra Pradesh, who were planning to join the new semester on January 10, 2011 after the winter break, cancelled their US travel plans.

Source: Team Shiksha

Date: 3rd February, 2011