It is now widely known that the Department of Homeland\nSecurity (DHS) created a fake university in Michigan with the goal of\nuncovering ongoing fraud in the student visa program. Despite the fact that the\nUniversity of Farmington was not a real school nor did it provide real classes\nor academic instruction, the recruiters who were paid by foreign students,\nmostly Chinese and Indian nationals, were real. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, as the Detroit News<\/a> reported earlier this year, the indictments of eight individuals for running an pay-to-stay scheme pitched at international students were real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But paying attention to details and facts is not a\nlesson politicians and activists have mastered. So, when news broke last week\nthat Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had arrested<\/a> 90 additional illegal\nalien students, they reacted with jerked knees and righteous indignation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) claimed<\/a> the operation was \u201ccruel and appalling,\u201d while her Democratic primary rival Sen. Kamala Harris of California tweeted<\/a> that it \u201cisn\u2019t just cruel, it\u2019s a waste of taxpayer dollars\u201d and officials should be held to account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Donna Shalala, who formerly served in President Obama\u2019s Cabinet and as president of the University of Miami, called<\/a> the DHS operation \u201canother shameful chapter in US history written by the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWelcome to United States immigration policy in 2019,\u201d scrawled<\/a> Esquire\u2019s Charles Pierce, who also asserted \u201cthe whole scam was set up as yet another vehicle to restrict immigration to this country, and to delegitimize programs already in place.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n If they had actually done their homework \u2013 or at least read the news articles based on the facts, then the lawmakers and media lecturers would know that genesis of \u201cOperation Paper Chase\u201d<\/a> occurred during the Obama administration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sympathy extended to the foreign students, most of whom have self-deported, also fails to reflect the facts of the case. The indictments, according to a January 31 report in the New York Times<\/a>, charge that each of the foreign citizens enrolled and made \u2018tuition\u2019 payments \u201cknew that they would not attend any actual classes, earn credits, or make academic progress toward an actual degree in a particular field of study.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, their only reason for enrolling at the University of Farming was to circumvent the restrictions placed on F-1 students at real institutions of higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, sadly, few media moralizers paid any attention to the facts of this case. Washington Post opinion columnist Ezra Klein concluded<\/a> that the \u201cHouse should hold hearings investigating this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is Klein really suggesting an investigation of the sting which began in Obama administration? What about the University of Northern New Jersey, another fake university set up by Obama\u2019s DHS to, as the New York Times described it<\/a>, \u201censnare criminals involved in student visa fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an April 2016 press conference<\/a> announcing the indictments resulting from the New Jersey case, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Paul \u00a0Fishman emphasized that \u00a0, the students were \u00a0not simply innocent rubes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He stated, \u201cNot only do these purported students get\nto stay in the country because schools are vouching for them, but student\nvisas, under the right circumstances, can start people on the pathway to legal\npermanent residence and citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even Corey Lee, an immigration lawyer in Manhattan,\nargued that the claim by the foreign students that they were pawns in this\nscheme is hard to stomach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you didn\u2019t go to a class for a year, you should expect something is going on,\u201d he told the New York Times<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s funny how actions that constituted good\nimmigration policing under Obama have suddenly become civil rights atrocities\nunder the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the key question is, who perpetrates a bigger\nfraud on the American people? The international students who seek out fake\nuniversities to circumvent immigration laws? Or the media hacks and politicians\nwho defend the lawbreakers while criticizing ICE?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is now widely known that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created a fake university in Michigan with the goal of uncovering ongoing fraud in the student visa program. Despite the fact that the University of Farmington was not a real school nor did it provide real classes or academic instruction, the recruiters who<\/p>\n