Amidst all the commotion and haphazard revolving around H-1B and immigration visa norms under the Trump government, we’d like to share some new piece of information with you, which is to be pretty honest, dishonest and strongly abhorred.
The federal law enforcement agencies in the US have arrested 90 foreign students, mostly from India, enrolled in a fake university established by the US government to check immigration fraud.
Understanding Everything Better
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a US federal law enforcement agency has arrested more than 250 students so far. These students were lured to enroll into fake universities established by the US government itself, just to check immigration fraud. The now-closed University of Farmington in the Detroit metropolitan area is one such fake university established by the Department of Homeland Security itself.
The ICE arrested 161 students from these fake universities, in March. It turns out that when this university was shut down, there were 600 students enrolled in it, most of them being Indians. The latest news is that 90 additional students have been arrested on same lines, in recent months.
This move is strongly detested by many and has gained traction on Twitter. Hashtags such as #AbolishICE, have been circulating around the social media platform. According to an ICE spokesperson, out of the 250 students arrested so far, about 80% were granted voluntary departure and departed the country.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, described the move as ‘cruel’. These students simply dreamed of getting the high-quality higher education in America. She blamed ICE for deceiving and entrapping such students, just so that it could deport them. ICE had filed criminal charge sheet against eight recruiters. They have been indicted for conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harboring aliens.
However, the sad part about all of this is that the students enrolled in these universities, most of who were Indians, came to US legally on a valid visa issued by the US embassy in India. The fake university charged around $2,500 per quarter for graduate programme and the average cost is $1,000.
More Indians Navigating Towards Europe and Canada
With the entry procedure and chances getting more and more stringent with every rule implied by the Trump government, the number of Indians navigating towards Canada and Europe for higher studies and job opportunities is showing a direct increase.
In 2019, the US saw a 13.7% decline in international business school applications, even as Canada and Europe recorded an increase. The growth pace in the number of Indian students studying in US has slowed, at 5.4% in 2018 over 12.3% the previous year.
Reports as such will nothing but encourage more and more foreigners to not opt the United States for their future pursuit, as a suitable destination. This has started to show impact on the US markets. . It has been found that the the US is not producing enough people with the skills to fill them.
A group of more than 60 US business school deans and CEOs have written an open letter to Trump and other leaders, asking them to reform the H-1B visa process and to do away with country-specific limits. In the letter, they have mentioned that US doesn’t have enough high-skilled IT talent and the drop in student admissions over the past three years is acting as a deterrent to get qualified immigrants into the US.
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