How the US government created a fake university to snare immigrant students

[mysteryowl]

Court documents reveal stunning scheme used to trap 161 foreign nationals; Ice maintains the students knew the school was fake.

The University of Farmington website described a college that would prepare students to succeed in an “ever-globalizing economy.” Students would show up at campus wearing backpacks and asking questions about classes. The US government listed Farmington as eligible to enroll foreign students. The school president, whose LinkedIn page is still online, sent emails to students describing his institution as “a nationally accredited institution authorized to enroll international students.”

But it was all a sham to snare immigrants.

Court documents unsealed last month unveiled a stunning scheme by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to create a fake university – with no classes or professors, just a staff of undercover agents who went on to build a case that has seen 161 foreign nationals arrested.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/22/farmington-university-immigration-sting-students

This must have been trump's creation.

[Freedomofspeech]

1. My god...

Can we get any lower? I think not.

[mysteryowl]

3. Pretty slimmy!

[MH1]

6. FFS, google and get a broader view of the story.

For example this very short interview from NPR (emphasis added):

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/02/690916805/the-university-of-farmington-isnt-real-it-s-a-complex-federal-sting-operation

SIMON: Any well-intentioned, earnest students get caught up in this, near as you can tell?

FISCHER: It may be. Several years ago, we at The Chronicle investigated a number of sham schools that were actual shams set up by people that were not the U.S. government. And when we talked to students, there were a number of them who said, for example, I was at a university. I was having trouble with my program. I transferred here. I read about this university online. And then I got there, and it seemed kind of too good to be true. I wasn't going to class.

And so it is possible that some of these were really well-intentioned students. But given that this was a university that operated out of a single office suite, where people who worked in the same building said they never saw a person around, it's really hard to believe that once they got here, most of these students were thinking they were actually going to get a degree.

I have absolutely zero sympathy for a foreign student who comes here to get a degree and thinks it's just great to do that without ever having to go to classes.

As someone who has been directly affected by abuse of the U.S. visa system, I would urge you to pay attention to the details and realize that each time someone successfully bullshits their way into a job or a diploma that gets them a job, that's one less "good job" opportunity for a disadvantaged student* that is already here and worked their fucking ass off to get their credentials.

Not to mention all the other problems with the visa system that fuck over U.S. workers in favor of sending $$$$ overseas and giving corporations more coercive power over their workforce.


* disadvantaged student in tech almost always = black and/or female.

For the record, I am all in favor of compassionate immigration policies. Those policies have little or nothing to do with the visa programs being discussed here, at least as currently constructed.

[uponit7771]

8. Yes, a prosecutor gave a child sex trafficker a sweet heart deal and is working in the white house

[MH1]

9. +1000. That and kids being ripped from their parents at the border.

I sure as hell think both are A LOT lower.

And with even a little effort I could find many more things to list for this administration.

[uponit7771]

10. These are some of the sleaziest bastards I've known, ... seriously, NOTHING about these guys with

... Red Don is a good.

I'm still checking my thinking to make sure I'm not bubbled but this is looking like some historical sleaze here.

[underpants]

2. They couldn't just use Trump U or Liberty?

[TheBlackAdder]

4. Funny, Republicans hate globalization, unless it's the spread of Russian viewpoints to America.

[MH1]

7. Democrats should also hate screwing over U.S. workers.

If our 2020 candidate doesn't get that, or isn't able to convince enough potential voters in swing states that they get that, we lose again. I don't know if this country will ever recover from the current disaster. We lose in 2020, so much of what our parents and ancestors fought for will be irretrievably lost.

For brief of how this involves screwing over US workers, see my post above, with subject line beginning "FFS ...".

It is unfortunate if any naive but innocent foreign students were caught up in this sting and punished unfairly. But I doubt there were many ... and in a just, compassionate immigration system, their cases would be heard and the damage either reversed or minimized.

But we have absolutely ZERO chance of getting to a just, compassionate immigration system, if Democrats don't learn to differentiate between helping people who need help, and helping people fuck over other people.

[TheBlackAdder]

11. Everyone wants cheap shit, the stuff our economy can no longer provide. We must advance.

.

Instead of trying to compete with manufacturing labor, which we can rarely do anymore, we must do what other advanced countries do... educate or re-educate the populous for 21st Century jobs. While local service jobs are required, and should al;so be funded to keep trades viable and cost-effective, state-of-the-art education and advanced courses teaching critical thinking and analysis are imperative.

Instead, the GOP wants to home school everyone, with religious backgrounds over civics and science. They force archaic energy solutions, that have no business in a modern world, instead of advancing newer technologies. Americans can not compete against $1.25 an hour labor, in firms that have no environmental or OSHA standards. Back in the 70s, we were importing a shitload of stuff from Japan, before their economy grew, then China and other emerging countries took over as Japan's standard of living increased.

This has been going on for over a century across the world, since well before the Guilded Age.

We should have learned our lessons by now.

.

[Blues Heron]

5. Farmington- Aliens

God these pukes are such assholes.