Six from AP, Telangana sentenced in US for recruiting students into a fake university

The recruiters actively recruited foreign nationals to enroll into Farmington University, which, unknown to them, was operated by the Department of Homeland Security.

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Six out of eight Indian recruiters – all of whom are from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh – who were detained in the United States in connection with the University of Farmington immigration fraud case have now been sentenced to various durations of imprisonment for exploiting the US student visa system.

According to reports, Santhosh Sama, Barath Kakireddy, Suresh Kandala, Avinash Thakkapally, Aswanth Nune, and Naveen Prathipati were all sentenced. Santhosh (28) has been given a sentence of 24 months, Barath (29) and Suresh (31) for 18 months, Avinash (28) has been sentenced to 15 months, and Aswanth (26) and Naveen (26) have been sentenced for 12 months.

Telangana Today reported that Khaalid H Walls of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had confirmed that all of the eight recruiters had pleaded guilty, however, only six had been sentenced. The sentencing of the remaining two – Phanideep Karnati (35) is scheduled for January 2020, and of Pram Rampeesa (26), for November 19.

All of these eight Indians have been charged with fraudulently facilitating foreign nationals to illegally stay and work in the US. Farmington University was a fake university run by DHS to trap those wanting to stay back illegally in the US, but recruiters were unaware of the same.

“As part of the scheme, the suspects assisted foreign citizen students in fraudulently obtaining immigration documents from the school and facilitated the creation of false student records, including transcripts, for deceiving immigration authorities,” according to the indictments. These illegal documents were based on false claims and fraud because the foreign nationals were neither bona fide students nor had the intent of attending the college.

Khaalid told TOI that all of the accused will be deported to India following their prison terms.

Background

It all began in January when officials from the US’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) created a fake university to lure in foreign students who were allegedly staying in the country illegally. The massive operation conducted by the US DHS had one sole intention: to trap immigration agents and illegal immigrants who were extending their stay in America on the pretext of being students.

The students were able to obtain an F-1 visa after being admitted to the college. The F-1 visa is a non-immigrant student visa that allows foreigners to pursue education in the United States. The students then were able to procure work permits using the work study program (called Curriculum Practical Training), which allowed them to work in the country. Upon receiving a work permit, they would no longer attend college.

Officials from the United States Department of Homeland Security detained hundreds of students, a significant number of whom were from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Telugu associations in the US stepped in to help provide the students with legal aid and to help them figure out what steps to follow next. While several students chose to return to India, many others had chosen to stay back and fight the case in court.

Read:

How Telugu associations helped students trapped in the US Farmington University sting

Months on, an uncertain future awaits Indians caught in US Farmington University sting