Illegal immigration to the US deal a heavy blow.

[Cookiegod]

The government in 2013 created the University of Northern New Jersey, supposedly located in the town of Cranford, to catch brokers of fraudulent student visas, even creating a website and social media accounts for the school that looked real.

It said brokers recruited more than 1,000 students to enroll, typically charged thousands of dollars for visas so they could stay, and sometimes arranged illegally for work visas.

Twenty-one arrests were announced when the university “closed” in April 2016.

The Department of Homeland Security then revoked the visas of many affected students, citing their “fraudulent enrollment,” prompting the lawsuit to restore their legal status.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1V526R

I'm going to spare you any further snarky comments (beyond the title) and simply want to ask all of you: Is there anyone here who thinks they did well?

EDIT: I forgot to mention the following: I'm genuinely interested how the people here judge this.
You don't have to justify your response, the poll is anonymous. But please keep sarcasm/trolling out of your vote.
Obviously feel free to share your thoughts if you want to.

[Sar1n]

I'm missing a lot of information here. Who were the arrested, were they the real culprits or just the middlemen? Did the students know they're getting fake visa?

Still, they've used a thousand people, tricked them into spending large amount of money, quite likely sacrificing a lot to get the visas. I'd say that from moral, if not legal, standpoint, ICE owes them the real visas and possibility to continue studying in USA for helping them catch the dealers.

[Cope]

Treating unwitting, innocent participants in the entrapment scheme as collateral damage was unfair and counterproductive.

[PointOfViewGun]

Isn't entrapment illegal in USA?

[Cookiegod]

I'm missing a lot of information here. Who were the arrested, were they the real culprits or just the middlemen? Did the students know they're getting fake visa?

Still, they've used a thousand people, tricked them into spending large amount of money, quite likely sacrificing a lot to get the visas. I'd say that from moral, if not legal, standpoint, ICE owes them the real visas and possibility to continue studying in USA for helping them catch the dealers.

They set up websites for a fake university, had people enroll in it, helped them get visas, forced them to pay thousands of dollars for those, then when they came to study, they were arrested for attending a University they did not know was fake.

[mishkin]

acceptable as a plot of another bad college comedy.

[Gaidin]

They set up websites for a fake university, had people enroll in it, helped them get visas, forced them to pay thousands of dollars for those, then when they came to study, they were arrested for attending a University they did not know was fake.

I wonder who the inside man at State was.

[Cohors_Evocata]

Surely if they wanted to catch people selling illegal visas, it would have been more productive to pose as prospective immigrants looking to buy them?

[Cookiegod]

Surely if they wanted to catch people selling illegal visas, it would have been more productive to pose as prospective immigrants looking to buy them?

They didn't try to catch people selling illegal visas. They helped the people get legal visas, and had them pay thousands of dollars for them.

The "University of Northern New Jersey" was even accredited by the authorities. Then, after they arrived: Hey, your school doesn't exist, therefore your student visa doesn't count and you're an illegal immigrant.

[B. W.]

Isn't entrapment illegal in USA?

Tell that to general Flynn.

[Cohors_Evocata]

They didn't try to catch people selling illegal visas. They helped the people get legal visas, and had them pay thousands of dollars for them.

The "University of Northern New Jersey" was even accredited by the authorities. Then, after they arrived: Hey, your school doesn't exist, therefore your student visa doesn't count and you're an illegal immigrant.

The article speaks of a supposed aim of catching "brokers of fraudulent student visas", which I interpreted as referring to third parties illegally and knowingly selling false visas based on a university they knew didn't exist. The article also mentions 21 arrests made, presumably for that reason. Do you have reason to believe the article is inaccurate in that interpretation? Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding anything.

Regardless, treating the prospective students this way is a dick move and IMO they deserve compensation at the very least, whether in monetary terms or by giving them the proper papers. More if this deception actually led to them getting arrested or deported. The situation would almost be funny if it didn't involve people losing their money and time: is America so desperate for an illegal immigrant scare that it's creating them itself?

[Lord Thesaurian]

The situation would almost be funny if it didn't involve people losing their money and time: is America so desperate for an illegal immigrant scare that it's creating them itself?

Yes. Illegal immigration is actually at the lowest overall level in years as of 2016.

[Sar1n]

They didn't try to catch people selling illegal visas. They helped the people get legal visas, and had them pay thousands of dollars for them.

The "University of Northern New Jersey" was even accredited by the authorities. Then, after they arrived: Hey, your school doesn't exist, therefore your student visa doesn't count and you're an illegal immigrant.

Do you have any sources for that? The article suggested that the targets were the brokers, not the students themselves. If they were though...why?

[Cookiegod]

The article states the ICE helped them get the visa and that the visa were obtained legally. And that the arrests and (attempted) deportations were based not on illegal immigration but on the grounds that their university did not exist and their student visa thus were void.

[Morifea]

First possible solution, one department in the ICE made the whole scheme to catch the middlemen but another department didn`t get the memo (or wanted to up department one) and just catched the students.

Solution two, someone in the ICE needs better numbers of catched illegals for the next promotion, so he found this way to catch some.

[PointOfViewGun]

Tell that to general Flynn.

In what context?

[Gromovnik]

A cartoonishly evil move.

[Cohors_Evocata]

The article states the ICE helped them get the visa and that the visa were obtained legally. And that the arrests and (attempted) deportations were based not on illegal immigration but on the grounds that their university did not exist and their student visa thus were void.

The visa were illegal in the sense that none of the prospective students actually met the requirement to go and take classes upon arrival; the question is whether they knew about this being the case and went along with it or if they were deceived. The 21 arrests mentioned were supposedly for people who did know the students would not be taking courses and took their money to arrange visa regardless.

http://web.archive.org/web/201605050...operation.html

http://web.archive.org/web/201604051...real.html?_r=0