Thread by @Plebeian42

Dear @ewarren and @AOC,

I’ve a lot of respect and admiration for your views, and this is not an attempt to deride you. That said, though, I was disturbed—and alarmed—by your recent tweets regarding the University of Farmington, and I want to broach this topic with you (1/135).

@ewarren @AOC I was disturbed by your tweets because they were factually inaccurate and, worse, misleading. Again, you are politicians of repute, and maybe uninformed about this topic, so let me tell you a story that’ll help clear some fog about what happened at Farmington and why (2/135).

@ewarren @AOC My response has become slightly long, and I’d much appreciate if you can spare 10 minutes of your time reading this thread. Okay, enough disclaimers, let me start (3/135):

@ewarren @AOC Over the last decade, ‘visa mills’ have spread across the US at a rapid rate. The modus operandi of these ‘institutions’—and the main players involved in it—are similar, and they follow a pattern (4/135).

@ewarren @AOC The first such case that came to light was Tri-Valley University (TVU), which was raided in January 2011. Its founder and owner, a Chinese immigrant, was sentenced to 16 years in prison, forfeiting $5.6 million and paying more than $900,000 in restitution (5/135).

@ewarren @AOC As of December 2010, the university had 1,555 students. Around 90% of them were Indians. The university listed 553 students living in a single two-bedroom apartment near the college, but they were spread out across the country, from Texas to Illinois to Maryland (6/135).

@ewarren @AOC And *this* is the pattern I’m talking about: a visa mill, numerous Indian students, blatant flouting of the US federal and immigration laws (7/135).

@ewarren @AOC These visa mills are well known in Indian immigration forums as “Day-1 CPT [Curricular Practical Training]” colleges, allowing students to work off-campus from the very first day (8/135).

@ewarren @AOC CPT is a temporary employment program that allows international students, on F-1 (student) visas, to work in the U.S. while they’re enrolled in a university. There are four main requirements to be eligible for CPT: internationalstudent.com/study_usa/way-… (9/135).

@ewarren @AOC 1) “You must have been enrolled in school full-time for one year on valid F-1 status (except for graduate students where the program requires immediate CPT) (10/135).

@ewarren @AOC 2) The CPT employment must be an integral part of your degree program or requirement for a course for which you receive academic credit. 3) You must have received a job offer that qualifies before you submit your CPT authorisation request (11/135).

@ewarren @AOC 4) [Finally,] your job offer must be in your major or field of study (12/135).”

@ewarren @AOC US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) forbids an international student to hold off-campus jobs, work more than 20 hours per week, or enroll in more than three credits of online course per semester. USCIS states that requirement quite prominently on its Website (13/135):

@ewarren @AOC These visa mills flout each such rule, and they—allowing students to stay in the US *legally* on F-1 visas—are nothing but a pay-to-stay scheme. Worse, the students enroll in them *fully knowing* that (14/135).

@ewarren @AOC Again, just a cursory Google search of “Day-1 CPT college”—and a few posts on Indian immigration forums—gives their entire game away. Before I proceed further, let me tell you why visa mills exist (15/135).

@ewarren @AOC First of all, compared to most American universities, these colleges are quite cheap, thus providing a high return on investment for the students. Secondly, they admit just about anybody regardless of their GRE and TOEFL scores (16/135).

@ewarren @AOC Third—and this is the most important—they allow students to work off-campus in occupations unrelated to their majors, thereby abusing the very essence of CPT programs and, hence, American higher education (17/135).

@ewarren @AOC These colleges are so affordable that the students are able to pay off their loans (and even save some money) by just working on the side. This is the rough career-path of such students: Students->Visa Mills (F-1 visa)-> Dubious IT body shops (H-1B) -> Green Card -> $$$ (18/135).

@ewarren @AOC These students benefit heavily from a federal-funded program, called OPT (Optional Practical Training), which allows them to work full-time in the US for three years on F-1 visa after graduation (19/135).

@ewarren @AOC So what do these students do at such visa mills? Well, do anything but study. Tri-Valley (TVU) only had online classes; most students didn’t even go to school. They do the most mundane, menial off-campus jobs: cleaning toilets, cooking food, working as baby-sitters, etc (20/135).

@ewarren @AOC This is a well-kept secret among Indian students, and hardly anyone talks about it. However, in January 2017, an Indian girl posted her experiences in a YouTube video, which went viral. An Indian news portal had reported on her outburst here: thenewsminute.com/article/viral-… (21/135).

@ewarren @AOC These students, as it’s quite obvious, are not in the country for quality education. They simply want to immigrate to the US, by any means, and settle there (22/135).

@ewarren @AOC Initially, at the time of TVU raid, there was some ambiguity regarding whether these students were really unaware and were, in fact, unfortunate victims of a dubious visa mill (23/135).

@ewarren @AOC Some TVU students were interrogated by ICE and forced to wear radio collars around their ankles so that the immigration officials could track their movements, which caused a huge furore in India (24/135).

@ewarren @AOC But soon, another story came to light: that these students not just knew what was going on, but many were active accomplices, as they functioned as recruiters, receiving kickbacks for referring a student to the university. (Again, all of it is a matter of public record.) (25/135)

@ewarren @AOC Now the real question is: Was Tri-Valley the only visa mill—or, in other words, were its modus operandi and the main players a one-off case? Absolutely not (26/135).

@ewarren @AOC A few months after the Tri-Valley raid, in July 2011, another American university was raided, the University of Northern Virginia (UNVA) (27/135).

@ewarren @AOC UNVA, authorised to enroll 50 international students, had 2400 students on its books—90% from India, and “most of them from Andhra Pradesh”. Even though UNVA wasn’t well known in the U.S., it called itself the “most popular American university for Indian students” (28/135).

@ewarren @AOC As I had said, these visa mills have a disproportionate number of Indian students—in fact, not just Indian, most of them hail from a particular part of India, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. (Telangana, once a part of Andhra Pradesh, became a separate state in 2014.) (29/135.)

@ewarren @AOC I’d say, remember the following four words, as they’d keep appearing in this message & will help you spot a pattern: “Andhra Pradesh”, “Telangana”, “Hyderabad [the capital of Telangana and de jure capital of Andhra Pradesh]”, “Telugu [people from Andhra P & Telangana]”. (30/135)

@ewarren @AOC Next year, in August 2012, ICE raided Herguan University. Its former CEO was sentenced to 12 months in prison and had to forfeit $700K for his involvement in the student visa fraud. At the time of the raid, Herguan University’s enrolment was 450; 400 were from India (31/135).

@ewarren @AOC Then another news came to light: that Herguan students were paid $1,200 for referring an applicant. The university had tie-ups with ‘educational consultants’, most of them in Hyderabad, for the same purpose (32/135).

@ewarren @AOC In April 2016, @nytimes published a detailed report on the nexus between Indian educational consultancies and American universities, which affords admission to many students with sub-par scores and qualifications: nytimes.com/2016/04/20/us/… (33/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes “Although federal law prohibits them [the US universities] from using recruiters in the United States who are paid based on the number of students they enrol, the law does not ban the use of such recruiters abroad,” noted the NYT piece (34/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes So this has allowed a lot of “recruiters”—or “educational consultancies”—to flourish in Andhra Pradesh, esp. Hyderabad, sending mediocre Indian students to the US: not just visa mills but lower-ranked colleges that admit international students irrespective of their merit (35/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes A journalist @TheQuint, then, contacted “three educational consultancies in Hyderabad and Bangalore” posing as a student with “extremely low GRE and TOEFL scores”—“scores so low that it should be impossible for anyone to get admission in any US university” (36/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint But “@TheQuint found out that such was not the case”. (One of the three educational consultancies was Study Metro, mentioned in the NYT report.) The representatives of those consultancies gave the journalist a range of answers: ... (37/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint “No problem, there are other options [said Study Metro]”; “it is tough but can be done,” said another; one consultancy, however, did tell her to “give GRE and TOEFL again”. You can read that piece here: thequint.com/news/india/we-… (38/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint Hyderabad’s educational consultancies are, in fact, infamous for their duplicity (39/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint Most of them promise admission to students with extremely low GRE and TOEFL scores, and a majority of them push students towards mediocre and lower-ranked universities to earn high commissions for each admission (40/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint The number of educational consultancy firms, in Hyderabad, has drastically gone up in the last five years: from 100 to 400. Most charge around Rs 20,000 per student in addition to the 5-10% commission on tuition fees charged by the U.S. universities (41/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint “Lesser the reputation of a university, higher our commission,” a consultant was quoted saying in this piece, sundayguardianlive.com/news/2376-stud… (42/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint Some consultancies intentionally mislead students; some dupe them of thousands of dollars; some prepare fraudulent bank statements, loan sanction letters, and transcripts. (None of this is an exaggeration. All of this is, again, one Google search away.) (43/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint After the TVU raid, when the university issued a public statement saying that two Indians—Anji Reddy and Ram Krista Karra, both from Andhra Pradesh—were behind the whole scam, the government of Andhra Pradesh initiated steps to probe into the matter (44/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint “The NRI cell of the state government found out that the university had appointed two consultants for the entire South Asian region and interestingly, both were from Hyderabad,” reported @DeccanChronicle (45/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle “The NRI cell also found out that of the total 18 members on the Board of the TVU administration team, six were from Andhra Pradesh.” (46/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle Coming back to the main topic, another question comes to mind: Were the aforementioned ICE-raided visa mills—TVU, Herguan, and UNVA—the only ones that saw a huge concentration of mediocre Indian students: not just mediocre, but also ethically comprised? Absolutely not (47/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle A few years after the Herguan University raid, in December 2015, many Indian students began getting deported from American airports; in some instances, they were refused to board flights (48/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle Six headlines from that period, all published in major Indian newspapers and Websites, will give you a rough idea of what was going on (49/135):

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle “19 students barred from boarding U.S.-bound Air India flight” (December 21, 2015); “Now, Etihad Airways stops U.S.-bound students” (December 23, 2015); “20 more Telugu students deported from U.S. on arriving Chicago” (December 29, 2015)… (50/135);

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle ... “30 students deported from the U.S. for working illegally” (December 30, 2015); “18 Indian students deported by U.S. authorities after cancelling their visas” (January 3, 2016); “U.S. cancels visas, deports Indian students” (January 11, 2016). (51/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle Do you see a pattern here? (52/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle Now where were these students headed? Two ‘universities’ in particular: Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU) and Silicon Valley University (SVU) (53/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle If you read the report again about the rant of that Telugu girl, which I had linked earlier, she mentions two universities: NPU and SVU. Remember this, NPU and SVU are *still* operational. So what was happening at these colleges? (54/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle In 2015, 9,026 foreign students had active visas to attend NPU—an increase of 350% from two years earlier. SVU, located not far from NPU, increased the number of foreign students by 267% in just a year—from 926 students in 2014 to more than 3,400 in 2015 (55/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle Neil Ruiz, a researcher at George Washington University, called NPU “Tri-Valley 2.0”. That quote comes from a piece on NPU and SVU, published in BuzzFeed, in the wake of Indian students’ deportation. buzzfeednews.com/article/mollyh… (56/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle From the same piece: “At SVU, two former professors told BuzzFeed News, cheating is rampant and professors were sometimes encouraged to change students’ failing grades because of immigration concerns.” (57/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle “One professor, who asked not to be named, said that she had failed almost half of her class for serious plagiarism, only to be approached by a university official who asked her to reconsider. He said they could lose their visas if they didn’t pass.” (58/135.)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle (More context on NPU’s numbers: “Its 9,026 foreign students would make up the 9th-largest body of international students in the country, according to Institute of International Education—above Michigan State and below UCLA. Yet few Americans have ever heard of it.”) (59/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle NPU and SVU were, of course, known all along in the Indian immigration forums as colleges that provide “Day-1 CPT”. Let me just give you one example. The following post—published on the immigration forum Trackitt—is from early 2011 *after* the Tri-Valley raid (60/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle It clearly shows that an international student at TVU, who was arrested by ICE, was planning to transfer to SVU (61/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle There’s another university very popular among Indian ‘students’ called International Technological University (ITU): same pattern—numerous Indian students, “Day-1 CPT”, students acting as recruiters, nexus with educational consultancies, etc (62/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle Located “just down the road from Herguan University”, ITU opened in 1994, with the ambition of being “the largest university in the world”. The university saw a rough start, “losing its accreditation, nearly going bankrupt, and dwindling by 2006 to a mere 18 students” (63/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle But then the officials hit on an idea to revive the university: promising international students that they could work full-time off-campus right from the first semester. It turned out to be a masterstroke (64/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle The enrolment, in the next few years, jumped to 1,500 students—94% from India—and the college became very profitable. You can read more about ITU and other visa mills here: chronicle.com/article/little… (65/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle But what’s most baffling about, and common to, all the 6 universities (3 raided by ICE, and NPU, SVU, ITU) is that they've been, or were, approved by SEVIS (Student & Exchange Visitor Information System), a program established by Homeland Security to admit int'l students (66/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle The most important question is also the most obvious: How were these visa mills, so blatantly violating the law of the land, SEVIS-approved?

The answer to that is long, but here’s a one-liner: ICE officials were caught napping. (67/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle A 2012 Government Accountability Office report found out many faults and oversights by SEVP and ICE’s officials, who failed to discharge their basic duties, giving rise to an environment where visa mills not just openly existed but also benefitted from that negligence (68/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle You can read the entire report here: gao.gov/assets/600/591…. I’m summarising some of its key findings below (69/135):

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle 1. “SEVP adjudicators have not consistently verified all evidence submitted in lieu of accreditation, specifically ‘in lieu of’ letters that support non-accredited schools’ petitions for SEVP certification because, according to SEVP officials, ... (70/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle … the program has not historically focused enough attention on fraud prevention until the Tri-Valley University case demonstrated the program’s vulnerabilities.” (71/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle 2. “According to SEVP officials, SEVP has not looked across previous cases of school fraud and school withdrawals to identify lessons learned on program vulnerabilities and opportunities to strengthen internal controls.” (72/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle 3. “SEVP has maintained a compliance case log since 2005—a list of approximately 172 schools as of December 2011—that officials have determined to be potentially noncompliant with program requirements… (73/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle … The compliance case log represents those schools that SEVP, based on tips and leads & out-of-cycle reviews, is monitoring for potential noncompliance. But according to SEVP officials, it hasn't looked across schools on this list to identify & evaluate possible trends…(74/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle … in schools’ noncompliance, which could provide useful insights to SEVP to assess program wide risks.” (75/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle 4. “ICE hasn't consistently maintained certain evidence of selected schools’ eligibility for the program. Based on our review of a stratified random sample of 50 SEVP-certified school case files, 30 files lacked at least one piece of evidence required by the program’s... (76/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle … policies and procedures. In addition, ICE was unable to produce two schools’ case files that we requested as part of our randomly selected sample.” [/end of summary] (77/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle There’s also another question that demands our attention: how do accreditation agencies—the gatekeepers of American higher education—identify the questionable institutions? After all, four out of the six aforementioned institutions were accredited, too (78/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle As you must be aware—and as bizarre as it may sound—an American university doesn’t necessarily need to be accredited for it to be SEVIS-approved (79/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle In such a case, ICE requires the school to submit letters from three other accredited institutions, stating that they accept credits from the school in question—referred to as ‘in lieu of’ letters (80/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle UNVA and TVU weren’t accredited at the time of ICE raids; they did, however, claim that three other accredited institutions accepted their credits. Had ICE investigated closely, it would have found that claim to be a lie. It would have also found other blatant violations (81/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle But what about some of the other schools—such as SVU, ITU, NPU—which, despite openly violating rules, still remained accredited? (82/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle It was so because a lot was wrong with the gatekeeper itself (83/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle Most visa mills—including NPU, Herguan University, SVU, UNVA (till August 2008), and ITU (from July 2001 to December 2004)—were approved by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS), an independent and autonomous accrediting body (84/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle You must be aware of this, Senator Warren, for it was your office, in June 2016, that published an excellent report on the problems plaguing the ACICS. I’m attaching the report here warren.senate.gov/files/document…, which found out the following (85/135):

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle 1. “ACICS has accredited 17 institutions that have been sued, investigated by, or reached settlements with, state and federal governments for defrauding students or engaging in other deceptive practices.” (86/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle 2. “College employees who witnessed ACICS’s accreditation processes have questioned the rigour of the accreditor’s reviews; one called it a ‘dog and pony show.’” (87/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle 3. “Compared to institutions certified by other major accreditors, many ACICS-accredited institutions consistently post some of the worst student outcomes in the country, measured by graduation rates, post-enrolment earnings, and debt burdens.” (88/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle ACICS, in fact, approved a five-year renewal of Herguan’s accreditation in April 2016—three-and-a-half years *after* ICE’s raid—despite the fact that its former CEO was sentenced to a one-year prison sentence for charges related to student visa fraud in September 2015 (89/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle It took ICE *four years* after the raid to revoke Herguan’s SEVP approval. You can read more at this link: insidehighered.com/news/2018/05/0… (90/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle On September 22, 2016, the Department of Education (DoE) stripped ACICS of its accreditation authority. The DoE’s move was considered a landmark decision, as ACICS oversaw around 725 institutions, and $3.3 billion in federal financial aid last year (91/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle But then, as you must be aware, ACICS sued the DoE, which ultimately resulted in Education Secretary Betsy DeVos restoring ACICS’s accreditation status (92/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle Back to visa mills: In May 2018, Quartz (@qz) published a detailed piece on two visa mills—the University of the Cumberlands and Campbellsville University—which, like the aforementioned institutions, offer “Day-1 CPT”. You can read the piece here: qz.com/1269299/f-1-vi… (93/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz Critical info from the piece: “The data show that the influx of students in Kentucky was predominantly from India. They’re pursuing master’s degrees in STEM fields, and account for about 95% of the total increase of international students in Kentucky from 2017 to 2018.” (94/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz Pay close attention to the numbers: “Total enrolment at the University of the Cumberlands was 6,031 in 2015. In fall 2017, the university had more than 10,000 students according to a press release. That was the same semester it started offering three new online... (95/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz … master’s degrees in information technology. In Spring 2018, total enrolment swelled to almost 12,000.” (96/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz Some numbers wrt Campbellsville: “In a city of about 9,000, Campbellsville enrolled 5,000 students in March 2017. By the fall, enrolment had grown to 8,372.” (97/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz Shanon Garrison, the vice president for enrolment services at the University of Campbellsville, told a local business paper that “99% of the students in the course are native to India but live in and work for companies based in the US.” (98/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz A pattern that, I hope, my previous tweets have made clear: “In its tax filing for its FY ending June 30, 2017, the University of the Cumberlands indicated it paid Vesta Technology Solutions—a Louisville, Kentucky-based consultancy company with an office in Hyderabad... (99/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz … —$1.64 million for graduate program marketing and recruitment.” (100/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz So this is what we’ve at the moment: 8 dubious institutions, admitting tens of thousands of Indian students—emboldened by ICE and ACICS’s laxity—who are not in the US for “quality education”. As I said, this is not a one-off case; it’s a pattern (101/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz My independent findings were, in fact, corroborated by the Quartz piece, which gave the link of a Website—DesiOpt.com (“Desi” is a colloquial term for Indians in the US)—that lists the name of universities providing “Day-1 CPT”. (102/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz You can see that list for yourself here—and you’ll find some familiar names there: desiopt.com/news/111/CPT-U… (103/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz So, as a conservative estimate, there are at least 15-20 visa mills, providing “Day-1 CPT”, which are massively popular among Indian students. I haven’t run the numbers yet, but I’m pretty sure that these institutions collectively admit around 100,000 students each year (104/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz And again, remember this: apart from TVU, UNVA, & Herguan, all other ‘universities’ are still flourishing and admitting hordes of international students. So this was the context. Now let’s see ICE/USCIS’s response to this mess (which, as I said, has been far from alert) (105/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz In June 2013, USCIS opened a fake university, the University of Northern New Jersey, as part of a sting operation to investigate the student visa fraud. The University of Northern New Jersey had all the superficial markers of a university: a motto; a Facebook page; ... (106/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz … a website, offering a list of degrees and the promise of an “exceptional educational experience”. But the university didn’t exist. nytimes.com/2016/04/06/nyr… (107/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz In April 2016, the 21 accused (“brokers, recruiters, & employers”) faced up to 5 years in prison & a $250,000 fine for committing a visa fraud & making a false statement. You must be curious: Who were these students, where did they come from, how many were enrolled? (108/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz An Indian newspaper, @the_hindu, told that story. You can read that piece here: thehindu.com/news/cities/Hy…. The headline itself will give you some indication, but let me quote some bits from it (109/135):

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu 1. “A little over 1,000 students were admitted into the fake university run by the US undercover agents and majority of these trapped in the sting operation were from India and China. The agents arrested included 10 from India and 11 from China. ... (110/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu Among the agents’ names released also had Telugu names like Tajesh Kodali and Karthik Nimmala indicating that they had a role in securing visas for students.” (111/135.)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu 2. “The presence of Telugu students is also obvious from the fact that the Facebook page of the fake varsity had lots of Telugu students interacting and posting messages. For example, when the fake university posted a fake message on the page... (112/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu … regretting the death of the fake varsity’s President Steven Brunetti’s mother, several Telugu students with names like Sreekanth Reddy, Chinna Chowdary and one Kaleemuddin Mohammed shared their concern and offered condolences.” (113/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu 3. “‘All these reflect the presence of Telugu students in quite a number,’ says Narsireddy Gayam, a GRE trainer. ‘The craze among Telugus for US immigration was exploited by the agents. Most of the visa-seekers paid to maintain their non-immigrant status in the USA.... (114/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu ‘… They very well knew that the varsity was sham as it allowed them to work outside without attending classes,’ Mr. Narsireddy points out.” (115/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu Let’s fast forward to February 2019 now, when ICE revealed that it had opened another fake university—the University of Farmington in Michigan—and had arrested recruiters and students (116/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu By mid-February, 146 students were detained—out of which 145 were Indians, and 140 of them from the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-… (117/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu By April, some news outlets reported that the university had around 600 students, out of which more than 80% belonged to the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. livemint.com/technology/tec… (118/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu The number of Telugu students at Farmington was so overwhelming that, just like the TVU case, it prompted Telugu associations in the US—technically non-profit organisations but actually caste-based congregations—to spring to action. thenewsminute.com/article/how-te… (119/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu As I said, these are not insignificant numbers. Take a look at this: “According to reports from 2018, it was estimated that nearly 17% of foreign students in the US hail from the Telugu speaking states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India.” (120/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu 17%! One in six international student in the US hails from the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana—you must pause and wonder what is really happening. (121/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu With respect to the case of Farmington University, @DeccanHerald reported that the ones “charged in the indictment were all Telugus”. deccanherald.com/national/eight… (122/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald I’m not an ICE apologist at all. I’m aware that they’ve been up to some awful things in recent years—especially separating minor children from their families at the US-Mexico border—which are unconscionable (123/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald But here’s the thing: existence doesn’t necessarily equal negation; A can exist, and so can B. ICE could be wrong about some of their draconian policies, but they could also be right in deporting students and arresting recruiters flouting federal laws (124/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald Now the final question to consider here is: Was ICE right in opening fake universities, entrapping students, then arresting and deporting them? (125/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald To an objective eye, it does look fishy and, going by ICE’s recent record, unethical. But given the wide-spread level of fraud, over the last several years, I don’t think it’s fair to blame ICE (126/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald Sure, in an ideal case, ICE should have targeted currently operational visa mills which have been flourishing in the US for quite some time. Instead, they’ve adopted a convoluted approach of opening fake universities (127/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald However, even this approach has resulted in the arrests of a substantial number of illegal employers, recruiters, and brokers (128/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald So one thing is quite clear: ICE’s actions, in this particular case, did *not* exist without a context or reason, and I hope these sting operations be seen in that light and not just as a callous federal agency losing its mind (129/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald Final disclosure: I’ve nothing against Telugus, or people from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. I’m a fellow Indian. As a journalist, I’ve been researching on this topic for the last 3 years, and I went where this story took me (130/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald My tweets should not be misunderstood as a slur against *all* Telugus. I don’t intend to generalise. Many of them, I’m sure, are hard-working, smart, and ethical (131/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald Neither should my messages be interpreted to mean that folks from other Indian states in the US are ethical by default. I’m fairly certain that people from several Indian states are involved in the visa mills scam; … (132/135)

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald ... however, it is undeniable that a majority of them do hail from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (133/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald That’s it from me. I don’t know if you’ve even hung around till this tweet but if you’ve, I want to sincerely thank you for your time and patience. I tried keeping my message as short (!) as possible, but I really had to lay out the entire context (134/135).

@ewarren @AOC @nytimes @TheQuint @DeccanChronicle @qz @the_hindu @DeccanHerald If there’s anything in it that doesn’t make sense, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. My email is thakurtanul[at]gmail[dot]com.

Warm regards,
Tanul (135/135).