10 Indians arrested in US visa sting, hundreds of students face deportation

Washington: US law enforcement agencies Tuesday arrested 21 people, including 10 Indian Americans, on charges of visa fraud involving about 1,000 foreign students. Arrested in New York, New Jersey, Washington and Virginia these 21 individuals were brokers, recruiters and employers who conspired with more than 1,000 foreign nationals to fraudulently obtain student and foreign worker visas through a "pay to stay" New Jersey college, Department of Justice said. As per the federal compliant unsealed today, the defendants, many of whom operated recruiting companies for purported international students, were arrested for their involvement in an alleged scheme to enroll foreign nationals as students in the University of Northern New Jersey, including, but not limited to, student visa fraud and the harboring of aliens for profit. Through various recruiting companies and business entities located in New Jersey, California, Illinois, New York and Virginia, the defendants then enabled approximately 1,076 of these foreign individuals – all of whom were willing participants in the scheme to fraudulently maintain their nonimmigrant status in the US on the false pretence that they continued to participate in full courses of study at the UNNJ.