Indian students who enrolled in fake university run by ICE can sue government, court rules

Hundreds of international students who enrolled in a Michigan State University that was revealed to be a covert operation by federal immigration officials can sue the government to recover their tuition money, a federal appeals court ruled last week.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit he ruled On June 25, the U.S. government was not immune to a 2020 lawsuit filed by Teja Ravi, a former student at the fake “University of Farmington,” on behalf of himself and other students because he entered into contracts with hundreds of students like Ravi for services he never provided.

The ruling overturns a 2022 lower court decision dismissing Ravi’s lawsuit and sends it back to the lower court for further consideration. Both the Trump and Biden administrations argued that the government was protected from Ravi’s lawsuit by sovereign immunity.

The three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the government was not immune and had failed to sufficiently prove its case that the Ravi agreement was unenforceable because it had no intention of honoring it from the outset.

“The government relies on the assumption that because he merely pretended to run the university, he could not have had any intention of creating a contract on his part, even if he took (and kept) the money that Mr. Ravi paid for the education he offered, and he does so even if he makes the assumption, required at this stage, that Mr. Ravi intended to get the education for which he paid,” the court wrote. “The argument is that even where there is an objectively clear offer and acceptance, with the acceptance taking the form of a payment of money to the offeror, there is no contract enforceable against the offeror, because of the lack of reciprocity of intent, so long as the offeror had his fingers crossed behind his back when making the offer and accepting the money.”

Attorney Anna Nathanson, who represents Ravi, said in press release that “University of Farmington students and their legal team are thrilled that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that 600 students wrongly harassed by this fake ICE university can stand trial.”

First Media in Michigan revealed in 2019, it was revealed that the “University of Farmington” was a sting operation initiated by a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to combat student visa fraud.

ICE opened a school in southeast Michigan in 2016. It ultimately aimed to attract about 600 people on student visas, all but one of whom were from India, and collect about $6 million from them in tuition and fees.

The government claims that recruiters and fake school representatives knew full well that foreign students were paying for classes and courses that didn’t exist. But the plaintiffs in the lawsuit say they were “unwitting victims,” lured into a trap by a school that, on its surface, appeared to be a legitimate institution.

The university had a website, a regularly updated Facebook page and a fake history dating back to the 1950s. Records obtained by local news agencies showed that Farmington was incorporated into the state of Michigan and listed by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges. More importantly, it was certified by the Department of Homeland Security’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which as Shikha Dalmia he wrote Down Reason in 2019 is the “final confirmation of official acceptance” for international students seeking an education in America.

After the revelation, ICE quickly closed the school and arrested about 250 former students. Many were deported, while the rest left the country voluntarily. There was an element of callousness to the whole affair: This Detroit News reported that after news broke that Farmington was a fraud, “the university’s Facebook page began posting memes,” including one in which Star Wars character Admiral Ackbar shouted, “It’s a trap.”

ReasonBilly Binion is conducted interview former Farmington student who paid a fake school $15,0000 in tuition and fees. He decided to voluntarily leave the U.S. to maximize his chances of legally returning in the future. He never got his money back.

The Farmington attack outraged civil rights groups, with 40 such groups set to join the campaign in 2022 signed the letter calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to investigate potential civil rights violations resulting from the sting operation.

“This decision is not just a legal victory, but a moral one,” Prudhivi Raj, a former student at the university, said in a news release after last week’s ruling. “It underscores that no one, not even the government, is above the basic principles of honesty and integrity.”