US move of tagging Indian students unacceptable: India

[Lankan Ranger]

US move of tagging Indian students unacceptable: India

India on Sunday slammed the US authorities for tagging some Indian students duped by a 'sham' university in California.

External affairs minister S M Krishna strongly condemned the reported forcible wearing of radio collars around the ankles of Indian students in the Tri-Valley University in US and demanded severe action against those responsible for the "inhuman act".

"We demand the US government initiate severe action against those officials responsible for this inhuman act. Indian students are not criminals. The radio collars should immediately be removed," he told reporters

"The way some of the students have been treated by authorities is unacceptable," Krishna said.

"In the opinion of the government of India the developments were unavoidable and adding insult to injury," he said.

Krishna told the US that it "must realize the tremendous stakes involved in higher education, in interaction between our two countries in higher education."

The foreign minister promised legal and consular help to the students.

Some of the Indian students duped by the 'sham' Tri-Valley University have been forced to wear radio-trackers around their ankles. This has triggered a wave of anger through the Indian community.

On Saturday India said the use of monitors was ''unwarranted'' and raised the issue with the US deputy ambassador in New Delhi.

Some 1,555 students of Tri-Valley University, 90 percent of them from India, mostly Andhra Pradesh, face the prospect of deportation following the closure of the university in Pleasanton on charges of selling student visas.

Some of the students who approached Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to seek help were placed under ISAP (Intense Supervision and Appearance Programme) and put in removal proceedings.

A number of students have already been interviewed by ICE agents, most have been questioned and released but a few have been required to wear ankle bracelets, Jayaram Komati of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) told IANS.

Throughout Saturday, Indian television channels had displaying visuals of Indian students with radio trackers around one ankle, which was apparently done to monitor their movements.

India protested the measure. "We have conveyed to the US authorities that the students, most of who are victims themselves, must be treated fairly and reasonably, and that the use of monitors on a group of students, who were detained and later released with monitors in accordance with US laws, is unwarranted and should be removed," said Indian external affairs ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash in New Delhi.

US deputy chief of mission Donald Lu was called to the external ministry and apprised of India's concerns over the measure.

US move of tagging Indian students unacceptable: Krishna - The Times of India

 

[Soumitra]

These students are not criminals but victims of a fraud. They should be treated respectflly. When the university in question was registered under SEVIS then how can a student know that the university is a fake or real?

 

[trident2010]

But as US said that tagging has been done to some students who found to breach the limited work law. If students knowingly broke the law then they should prepare for punishment too. Good lesson for others.

 

[ajtr]

Duped Indian students ignored red flags​

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of Indian students who have gotten scammed by a dodgy California-based university had it coming. Tri-Valley University (TVU) had a reputation as a "Diploma Mill" that offered a spurious route to employment and immigration in the US. Inquiring students and professionals knew about it, discussed it in immigration forums, and warned others about it.

But eager beavers looking for a short cut to emigrating to the US through a questionable academic route ignored the red flags. After US authorities busted the scam, an estimated 1500 students, some of them gullible victims, some of them scheming immigrant hopefuls, face financial loss, loss of credits, loss of time, loss of face, and in some cases, even face deportation.

Here's how the scam unfolded: India, from among all countries, has been sending the maximum number of students to US colleges over the past decade – some 10,000 to 15,000 each year. Most aspiring students try and get into the top 50 schools, which have stringent qualifying standards, including exams such as GRE and GMAT, besides TOEFL, an English proficiency test. The process involves gaining admission on the basis of test scores, in lieu of which the university, if it accredited and complaint with US rules, sends an I-20 document to the accepted student, which he or she presents to the embassy or consulate in the home country to get an F-1 student visa.

But in recent years, several dodgy universities have come up which waive GRE/GMAT requirements as long as students can pay thousands of dollars up front in the form of various 'fees.' More pertinently, these colleges dubiously facilitate Optical Practical Training (OPT) and Curricular Practical Training (CPT), the two routes to employment at the end of the college degree, from the first day of enrollment.

Typically, in recognized, well-regarded universities, all students must be enrolled as full-time students for a year before receiving CPT/OPT. For the hundreds of thousands of Indian students who have eventually become US citizens, OPT and CPT are the first steps to employment--based visa (usually H1-B), Green Card , and citizenship, in that order.

TVU and similar schools had a "well-earned" reputation of shortening the process by offering OPT/CPT from day one – which meant "students" could get on the employment track even as they began "college." In fact, TVU didn't even have a campus in the traditional sense. It had a solitary, sorry-looking building, bought in April 2010, which housed everything from administrative offices to classrooms, from which random lectures were transmitted over the internet to "students" across the US, including those working other jobs. Under current US law, students cannot take only online courses while on an F-1 status, a scam TVU managed to perpetrate.

Founded by Susan Xiao-Ping Su and run mainly by Chinese Christians, with a few Indians in the "faculty," the school boasted that its mission "is to make Christian scientists, engineers, business leaders and lawyers for the glory of God, with both solid academic professionalism and Christian faith, therefore to live out Christ-like characters, value and compassion in the world, to make an impact and shine as its light."

If that wasn't enough to set off alarm bells, prospective students could have at least seen the writing on the wall – internet forums -- had they bother to trawl any. In an exchange that began in April 2010, students, both prospective, inquiring ones, and those already committed to TVU, duked it out online about the university and its practices. "Has any one got any experience with Tri-Valley University?" inquired one person on an immigration forum. He had heard they offer "hassle free admission, gre, gmat not mandatory, tofel (sic) is pretty much the only requirement low semester fee, OPT, CPT from the day the course starts. no tests, no mandatory online classes, a perfect way to bypass the visa process!"

In no time, there were red flags galore. "TVU is NOT accredited, so you can NOT get a degree from them. Any 'degree' they issue is worthless," wrote one forum member on May 19. "If you use a 'degree' from them for any immigration purpose, it would be fraud. You can also NOT use OPT or CPT from them. Any such use would be fraud." Unperturbed, the inquirer wrote back: "the degrees are worthless, but i thought that its enough to get CPT."

Other immigration forum members, some of them partisans and flaks for TVU, then argued about how if the university was not accredited, it could generate I-20, a document for prospective students that enables them to apply for and get F-1 student visa in their home country. "You are grasping at straws. Probably because you have signed up with them and now have been told that you got scammed. Scamming victims are often in denial...," wrote a user named Jo1234, warning, "I think TVU will eventually get into trouble with authorities...Their "degrees" are worthless. If you try to use them for an H1 or a GC, you would be committing fraud. Spend your money with a real university, not these fraudsters."

It took till January this year for US authorities to cotton on to the scam – or, to look at it charitably, to put together the manpower for a nationwide crackdown. Although TVU was based in Pleasanton, California, it's 'students' were scattered throughout the country, from the East Coast to Midwest to Deep South. Many of them were illegally employed. Although it was allowed only 30 foreign admissions pending accreditation, TVU had managed to work the system to enroll more than 1500 students. Apparently, there were companies across the US which used TVU's F-1 visa-based CPT/OPT to beat H1-B visa requirements, which regulate salary, insist on not replacing American workers etc.

On January 19, after raiding TVU, getting student records from the school, and shutting it down, immigration officials began knocking on the doors of TVU students across the country or serving NTAs (notice to appear) asking them to get in touch with the local office. In some cases, officials merely made preliminary inquiries. In others, students were interrogated for up to three hours. Some had their passports taken away, if they declined voluntary departure. And in rare cases, where officials found egregious violation of visa terms or questionable visas, students were shackled with electronic monitoring devices till further inquiries.

"It was terrifying," said one student who asked not to be named. "Out of the blue, all our dreams came crashing down."

But while there is the usual outrage and fire-spitting in India over the radio collar issue, it turns out that not all students are as gullible as was initially made out. Speaking on background, community leaders, attorneys, and even some students acknowledged that many people knew the whole process was questionable. One giveaway: According to representatives of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA), an estimated 95 per cent of the TVU admissions from India are from Andhra Pradesh, a fact that has prompted TANA to arrange legal representation for the students. "They are young kids whose future will be ruined. They are our people after all. We have to help them," says TANA's Jayaram Komati. According to one student, most victims paid up to $ 2800 per semester to Tri-Valley, some of them paying as much as $ 16,000 up front for a full course to obtain a shady degree.

The growing sense among officials and even the Indian community is that many students knew what they were getting into but still risked it. "They know what the rules are - problem is, some of them work within the Indian mentality that the rules are made to be avoided and that the government is a nuisance, not a power to be reckoned with," Nandita Ruchandani, a New York-area immigration attorney who has dealt with such cases, told ToI. Still, many attorneys, some of them working pro bono, are offering to help the students. Two attorneys arranged by TANA in the Bay Area are now working on several Tri-Valley cases.

On Sunday morning TANA arranged for a conference call with immigration attorneys at which more than 200 affected students called in. Among the student gripes, how could the US government undermine the process initiated by a college which it recognized enough to allow it to generate F-1 visas? And if it was a sham university as authorities were now claiming, how and why did the US consulates in India issue the visas?

Meanwhile, a steamed up Indian government, aghast at the radio tagging of a few students, has sought to free them of the ignominy even as the more gullible victims are wondering whether to return to India or keep a foot in the academic door through an appeals process. "We are in a dilemma ...Many students are afraid to go to immigration officers...they are taking away passports pending investigation, sometimes even for those going for voluntary self-departure," a Minneapolis-based student told ToI.

The student, who transferred to Tri-Valley from another university, found the Pleasanton school dodgy enough to request a transfer late last year. But she says other schools declined to accept Tri-Valley credits. Stuck in the quagmire, she has gone by the advice of US authorities and phoned into the hotline they have established to provide details of her case. She hasn't heard back from them. It will be a long cold winter for many Indian students in the US.

 

[idune]

India condemns US for radio-tagging duped students

India condemns US for radio-tagging duped students Hyderabad has seen angry protests over the weekend India has condemned US authorities for tagging Indian students who, it says, were duped by a fake university.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishan said Indian students were "not criminals" and that radio collars put around their ankles must be removed.

US authorities have shut down the Tri-Valley University near San Francisco, accusing it of an immigration fraud.

The university has more than 1,500 students and reports say nearly 95% of them are from India.

Most of the students are reported to be from the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and many of them now face deportation.

In the state capital, Hyderabad, members of the All India Students' Federation have demonstrated against the Tri-Valley University near the US consulate.

"We demand that the US government initiate severe action against those officials responsible for this inhuman act," Mr Krishna told reporters in the southern city of Bangalore on Sunday.

"Indian students are not criminals. The radio collars should immediately be removed," he said.

"We have conveyed to the US authorities that the students, most of who are victims themselves, must be treated fairly and reasonably," the ministry said in a statement.

The students have been forced to wear radio collars around their ankles so that the US authorities can keep track of their movements.

BBC News - India condemns US for radio-tagging duped students

 

[Last Hope]

As 95% of them are bhartis, then this must be bharti university.
Everyone would start crying if they were Pakistanis.
Biased.

 

[idune]

Indian illegal immigrants in US up 64 percent last decade

IANS, Feb 10, 2010, 10.29am IST

WASHINGTON: In 2009, India accounted for the third highest increase in the number of illegal immigrants in the US in ten years, according to a new government report, though only two percent of all illegal immigrants were Indians.

The number of illegal immigrants in the US fell by seven percent to 10.8 million last year.

A majority of them came from Latin America, according to the department of homeland security (DHS) report, though India with 200,000 was the sixth biggest sender of illegal immigrants to the US.

In overall numbers, Indians accounted for only two percent of illegal immigrants. Mexico (6.7 million) topped the list with 62 percent, followed by those from El Salvador (530,000), Guatemala (480,000), Honduras (320,000) and the Philippines (270,000).

Between 2000 and 2009, the Mexican-born unauthorised immigrants increased by two million or 42 percent. But the greatest percentage increases occurred among unauthorised immigrants from Honduras (95 percent), Guatemala (65 percent), and India (64 percent).

"The number of unauthorised residents declined by one million between 2007 and 2009, coincident with the US economic downturn," said the report based on census data and extrapolations from the total foreign population in the country.

Beside the US and global financial crisis, other reasons the report adduces for the drop in the undocumented population include tougher border enforcement and a national crackdown on illegal immigrants.

The overall annual average increase in the unauthorised population during the 2000-09 period was 250,000 with ten leading countries of origin representing 85 percent of the unauthorised immigrant population in 2009.

Of the nearly 11 million undocumented people living in the US in January 2009, 37 percent, or four million, arrived since January 2000, 44 percent since the 1990s and 19 percent since the 1980s, the DHS said.

Between January 2008 and January 2009, the number of unauthorised immigrants living in the US decreased seven percent from 11.6 million to 10.8 million after growing from 8.5 million to 11.8 million between 2000 and 2007, DHS said.

An estimated 8.5 million of the 10.8 million unauthorised immigrants living in the US in 2009 were from the North America region, including Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. The next leading regions of origin were Asia (980,000) and South America (740,000).

California remained the leading state of residence of the illegal immigrants in 2009, with 2.6 million, followed by Texas (1.7 million), Florida (720,000), New York (550,000) and Illinois (540,000).

California's share of the national total was 24 percent in 2009 compared to 30 percent in 2000. The greatest percentage increase in the illegal population between 2000 and 2009 occurred in Georgia (115 percent), Nevada (55 percent) and Texas (54 percent).

In 2009, 61 percent of unauthorised immigrants were aged 25 to 44 years, and 58 percent were male. Males accounted for 62 percent of the illegal population in the 18 to 34 age group in 2009 while females accounted for 52 percent of the 45 and older age groups.

Read more: Indian illegal immigrants in US up 64 percent last decade - The Times of India Indian illegal immigrants in US up 64 percent last decade - The Times of India

 

[Trisonics]

The school listed is under the SEVIS system ...how did the school go unnoticed and what makes the students fraudulent just because they enrolled in this university?

 

[idune]

The school listed is under the SEVIS system ...how did the school go unnoticed and what makes the students fraudulent just because they enrolled in this university?

Its not one or two indians who did this. More than thousand indians used this fake school to enter US for years I suppose. And indian govt kept quite about this fake school. Now they are all worked up because massive fraud is exposed.

 

[Guli Danda]

This is how indians increased illeagal count in US. Pushing these fake students are just one route indias took.

Do i post links that how Bangoldeshis migrate to India in millions over years??

 

[Trisonics]

Its not one or two indians who did this. More than thousand indians used this fake school to enter US for years I suppose. And indian govt kept quite about this fake school. Now they are all worked up because massive fraud is exposed.

FYI this school is in the US and not in India...comprehension..comprehension..read again and again ..you may not embarrass yourself so much

 

[idune]

FYI this school is in the US and not in India...comprehension..comprehension..read again and again ..you may not embarrass yourself so much

You better check the reality - when these indians duped by this fake school in US did indian govt and indians protested????? NO

Now why try to worked up when these indians who used this fake school to enter US ????

There are things indians can not just get away with.

 

[Trisonics]

You better check the reality - when these indians duped by this fake school in US did indian govt and indians protested????? NO

Now why try to worked up when these indians who used this fake school to enter US ????

There are things indians can not just get away with.

Please take a minute and re-type..You are not making any sense..Please explain how the Indian Govt is involved(read ur previous post)

 

[casual]

deport them

 

[tallboy123]

well let them come back
join here in our universities..invest here for u r education...

Come home guys..
leave US,
reverse the brain drain..India is calling....
U can get all the comfort u get there...