Twenty-one people who allegedly helped more than 1,000
foreign nationals fraudulently obtain student visas were arrested this
morning by federal agents in a nationwide sweep.
The foreign nationals are now working at companies throughout the United States illegally.
This was a "pay to stay" scheme, said U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Paul J. Fishman.
The arrests represent the conclusion of a three-year investigation
into the exploitation-for-profit of non-immigrant student visas. Arrests
were made in New York, Washington, New Jersey and Virginia by special
agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland
Security Investigations (HSI).
To help catch the alleged criminals, HSI federal agents set up a fake
university, called the University of Northern New Jersey (UNNJ), that
provided work authorization for hundreds of "students."
Many of 21 people charged operated recruiting companies for purported
international students, according to the U.S. attorney. They were
arrested for their involvement in an alleged scheme to enroll foreign
nationals at UNNJ, a fake for-profit college located in Cranford, New
Jersey. The alleged scammers and the foreign nationals who obtained
visas believed the school was real.
However, it was created in September 2013 by HSI federal agents, complete with a Facebook page and website. It never had classes, only offices staffed by federal agents who posed as school administrators.
"The University of Northern New Jersey was just another stop on the pay-to-stay tour," said Fishman.
The people accused in the scheme, enabled approximately 1,076 foreign
individuals, primary from China and India, to fraudulently maintain
their nonimmigrant status in the U.S. on "the false pretense that they
continued to participate in full courses of study at the UNNJ",
according to the U.S. attorney.
They also allegedly also used UNNJ to fraudulently obtain work
authorization and work visas for hundreds of their clients. The 21
people were charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, conspiracy to
harbor aliens for profit and other offenses.
"They did not know, nor did they care one wit, as to the students who
were coming in what purposes they came into the country for and if they
had any ill intent," said ICE Director Sarah Saldaña at Tuesday's press
conference.
Undercover agents told each defendant in conversations that were
secretly recorded that the university was a sham devised to get
immigration status for foreign nationals, said Fishman.
The so-called students will now be placed under administrative arrest
by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for their alleged
complicity in the scheme. They will be placed into immigration
proceedings and likely deported.
Those who bought the phony papers work for the U.S. military, as well as Facebook, Google
and other well-known companies, according to a law enforcement
official. The buyers were "fully aware" they were acquiring fraudulent
documents, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The companies are not implicated in the scheme and were unaware of
the fraud. They are just finding out today that their employees
allegedly used fake documents.
The case exposes a potential route to the United States for would-be terrorists
and touches the political controversy over the H-1B visa, a
nonimmigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ
foreign workers in specialty occupations.
"‘Pay to Stay’ schemes not only damage our perception of legitimate
student and foreign worker visa programs, they also pose a very real
threat to national security," Fishman said.
The arrests come a year and a half after an ABC News investigation
found that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had lost track of
more than 6,000 foreign nationals who entered the U.S. on student visas.
The investigation also found dozens of schools suspected of being no
more than visa mills for foreigners.
Tightening up the student visa
program was one of the major recommendations made by the 9/11
Commission, after it was determined that the hijacker who flew Flight 77
into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had entered the U.S. on a student visa
but never showed up for school.
-Lee Ferran contributed to this story.
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