Eight people arrested in US for visa fraud

At least eight Telugus were arrested after a four-year-long ‘sting operation’ by the United States Department of Homeland Security to nab foreign students staying in the US without proper authorisation.

According to an indictment (charge-sheet) unsealed by federal authorities in Detroit on Wednesday, “eight people were arrested and indicted in an immigration fraud case for conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harbouring aliens for profit”.

The indictment says from February 2017 through January



2019, the defendants “conspired with each other and others to fraudulently facilitate hundreds of foreign nationals in illegally remaining and working in the United States by actively recruiting them to enroll into a metro Detroit private university that, unbeknownst to the conspirators, was operated by Homeland Security Investigation special agents as part of an undercover operation”.

The eight arrested were accused of helping enroll the students in exchange for cash, kickbacks and tuition credits as part of a ‘pay-to-stay’ scheme. Officials were quoted in media reports saying the students involved in this case came to the US legally to study at universities, but later transferred to the University of Farmington after they arrived in order to work.