(Image source from: Moneycontrol.com)

Amid the detention of many Indian students in the United States for enrolling themselves in a fraudulent university, some of the eminent Indian Americans and media outlets have questioned the modus operandi of the U.S. government, saying “trapping of innocent students” is a “crime, illegal, and moral”.

As many as 130 foreign students, including 129 Indians, have been arrested by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the “pay-and-stay” university visa scam.

The “fake” University of Farmington was set up by the DHS’s investigating unit in the Greater Detroit area to bust the “pay-and-stay” fraud.

Dr. Raghava Reddy Ghosala, president of North American Telugu Association (NATA) and a psychiatrist, told PTI “trapping of innocent students like this is a crime. This is illegal and immoral”.

Ghosala has been in touch with several of these students detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of its countrywide clampdown on the “pay-and-stay” racket.

The university, in the last two years, enrolled some 600 students, mostly Indians. It held no classes and collected a nominal fee from the students and gave them Curricular Practical Training on day one of the enrolments, which gave students temporary authorization for practical training directly related to their study or to work.

“As per our inquiry, it looks like they (the U.S. government) set up the trap. I heard from victims,” Ghosala said, adding one of the victims even went to India and came back without any problem. “He did not get arrested then. Now he is leaving the U.S. for good on Monday. Such a modus operandi is illegal and is a wrong thing to do,” he said.

Amer Zahr, a Professor of Law at the University of Detroit Mercy, told the WXYZ Detroit news: “It seems the government was really involved in tricking students into violating the terms of their visas”.

The Indian government on Saturday issued a demarche to the American Embassy in New Delhi, expressing concern over the detention and further sought immediate consular access to them.

-Sowmya Sangam