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I'm genuinely puzzled as to what crime these students had supposedly committed. ICE had not told these students that the university was fake. They marketed it a
by whack 7y ago
I'm genuinely puzzled as to what crime these students had supposedly committed. ICE had not told these students that the university was fake. They marketed it as a legitimate and accredited university, and even got other governmental agencies to vouch for this fake university:
> Attorneys for the students arrested said they were unfairly trapped by the U.S. government since the Department of Homeland Security had said on its website that the university was legitimate. An accreditation agency that was working with the U.S. on its sting operation also listed the university as legitimate.
It sounds like most of the students were specifically looking to enroll in an accredited university, so that they can be in compliance with the law. And they would have succeeded in that as well, if not for ICE deceiving them into thinking that the university was accredited, when it actually wasn't. How is this not entrapment?
"entrapment is a practice whereby a law enforcement agent or agent of the state induces a person to commit a criminal offense that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit"
- robrtsql 7y agoI don't buy it, but the article includes a quote that appears to attempt to address your concern: > "Their true intent could not be clearer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Helms wrote in a sentencing memo this month for Rampeesa, one of the eight recruiters, of the hundreds of students enrolled. "While 'enrolled' at the University, one hundred percent of the foreign citizen students never spent a single second in a classroom. If it were truly about obtaining an education, the University would not have been able to attract anyone, because it had no teachers, classes, or educational services." Their argument is that, because no student ever attended class, all of the students were knowingly attempting to commit fraud. That claim seems suspect, considering that there were no classes for the students to attend. I suppose you could argue that, if a student found out that there were no classes and did not attempt to report the university or un-enroll, that they were complicit in the fraud, but still, what the hell?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- barneygumble742 7y ago> Reddy said, though, that in some cases, students who transferred out from the University of Farmington after realizing they didn't have classes on-site, were still arrested.
- jkoudys 7y agoIf they detained people for never showing up for class, 2/3rds of my 1st year engineering class would've been arrested.
- Kalium 7y ago> I'm genuinely puzzled as to what crime these students had supposedly committed. It looks like visa fraud. The idea is that they signed up for a transparently false university (that claimed to be real, but obviously wasn't) in order to stay in the country when they otherwise were not legally entitled to. Not sure how well this will hold up in court. We'll see.
- shakezula 7y agoExcept it wasn't "transparently false", it was made to look as real as a government accredited university can on purpose.