Wish to study abroad? Now be aware of IMMIGRATION RACKET

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE:         Though America is hit by the polar vortex, on the other side hundreds of supposed Indian students across the country are getting the shivers after being entrapped by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an immigration racket.

Recently, an extraordinary tale has put around 600 Indian youngsters on a risky situation which resulted in the arrest of eight alleged mastermind in the US Department of Homeland Security where they set up a fake university in Michigan to target foreigners who wanted to immigrate to the US using a phony academic route. Hundreds of Indians fell into the trap.

In an accusation filed in January which was unsealed this week, US prosecutors alleged that from February 2017 through January 2019, the eight 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 enrol into a metro Detroit private university that, unbeknownst to the conspirators, was operated by HSI (Homeland Security Investigation) special agents as part of an undercover operation.”

According to the story, the so-called University of Farmington set up by the homeland security department harvested nearly 600 “students,” stressed to be from India, whom the defendants helped illegally remain and work in the United States as part of a ‘pay to stay’ scheme. The opposition mentioned that the youngsters “knew that they would not attend any actual classes, earn credits or make academic progress toward an actual degree,” and were willing participants in an immigration fraud.

The names of those charged in the accusations were given as Barath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary, Florida; Suresh Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Virginia; Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky; Prem Rampeesa, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina; Santosh Sama, 28, of Fremont, California; Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta; and Naveen Prathipati, 26, of Dallas.

According to the community estimate, nearly 600 youngsters from India are affected and some 100 students have also been arrested. Many of them face prosecution or least deportation as most of the students are from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and various Telugu associations and attorneys are reaching out to help them.