A student at Lehigh University fabricated his way into the classroom, according to an immigration analyst, there could be many more cases of this.
According to a previous Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, the student card program is prone to “fraud.”
Jon Feere spoke to The College Fix about his observations on “widespread” student card scam, which he has written is “widespread.” Prior to joining the Center for Immigration Studies, Feere ( pictured ) worked as a senior advisor to ICE and as its chief of staff in the Trump administration.
The “fraud is” rather common,” the Trump presidency official told The Fix via email. The Fix had inquired about a particular Lehigh University Indian student who fabricated his intellectual records, including making bogus transcripts. After the student faked the death of his father, the school granted him a full-ride award and also paid for his traveling to and from India.
The student “admitted to committing substantial fraud on a lengthy article on the Reddit online website,”” Feere wrote in his statement,” but the scam just came to an end. He is now in ICE prison and faces repatriation.”
No obvious strategies for colleges to combat card fraud, according to Feere, according to Feere and the State Department.
The emigration expert told The Fix,” The federal government appears to be relying wholly on school admissions officials to stop fraud despite the fact that they are obviously ineffective.”
No expectations from DHS regarding making any effort to verify contact information from foreign schools are expressed in the statement that U.S. schools “apparently do n’t have a formal list of contact information for the foreign schools from which foreign students are applying.
He said British colleges” do n’t have the capacity to find out if a foreign person’s finances are appropriate and are handing out entire scholarships to cybercriminals.”
One issue is that” the federal government may keep track of all of them because too many schools have been” qualified to accept foreign students.
For our international student program to keep its legitimacy, Feere told The Fix,” We need fewer credentials and higher norms.”
The emigration expert said that DHS should support schools in detecting fraud and regulate the procedures. National institutions should ensure the international schools they call are “legitimate” and “only come through approved channels of communication”.
Fraud, according to Feere, “is the most dangerous aspect of any state program.” There ought to be” serious and immediate reform.”
Schools must have their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification in order to be ready to accept international students on visas. Despite this, Feere discovered that the card programme lacked effective fraud detection tools.
Thus, many schools in America have been left to carry the load of vetting visa programme candidates under limited norms, he said.
Homeland Security disputes allegations
In response to questions from The Fix, an immigration and customs enforcement spokeswoman responded to Feere’s questions.
The student visa program “analyzes student and school records to ensure compliance with federal regulations” and” collaborates with Homeland Security Investigations…on cases involving fraud, security concerns, or potential national security violations”, spokeswoman Paige Hughes told The Fix.
SEVP also uses” a tip line” to receive notifications about potential fraud cases from” a variety of stakeholders, including educational institutions.”
The program removed 269 schools in fiscal year 2024 and also investigated 290 tips, Hughes told The Fix.
Additionally, SEVP “assesses the compliance of the regulations by conducting site visits to employers who employ nonimmigrant students.”
The program provides guidelines to American colleges and universities “on compliance issues, security concerns, and trends relating to schemes targeting foreign students” through a network of “nearly 45, 000 designated school officials”.
Additionally, the student visa program conducted “dozens of unannounced site visits to schools and businesses throughout the country.”
ICE stated that it is expanding its fraud prevention and detection programs, including improving its data centers, and “increasing the number of unannounced site visits to certified schools and businesses.”
MORE: Mayor of New York City offers free tuition to illegal immigrants who leave the city.
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