130 Students Arrested in ‘Pay-to-Stay’ Sting Operation

According to reports, 130 students have been arrested in a "pay-to-stay" sting operation using a fake university face only civil immigration charges.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson Carissa Cutrell said that more of them could be arrested soon.

According to the documents filed by federal prosecutors, 600 students were enrolled at the fake institution, University of Farmington, which has been set up by immigration officials for the sting operation to catch student visa fraud.

It was called ‘Pay-to-Stay’ scam as students were paid to fake university to stay in the US on a student visa without attending classes.

According to the court documents, the recruiters were paid between $5,000 and $20,000 at meetings with Homeland Security Investigations agents involved in the University for recruiting the students.

The students who enrolled in this fake university were transferred from other universities.

Obama administration officials did a similar thing in the past, in 2016, and caught over 1000 students. Most of them are from India and China.

Michigan State allowed Farmington University in 2015 to start a business after showing the plans to provide housing space, administration facilities, labs, a library, and other teaching facilities, the Detroit News reported.

But according to the recent news, there is neither teaching facilities nor any other required or said things in the building.

Even the president was a fictional character who was named Dr. Ali Milani, sources reported.