SAN FRANCISCO – The government of India is urging the United States to show leniency toward Indian students who were enrolled at a “sham university” in California that U.S. authorities say was a front for illegal immigration.
The U.S. attorney’s office alleges the owner of Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton used the unaccredited school to charge foreigners millions of dollars in tuition fees and help them obtain student visas to stay in the U.S.
Officials at Tri-Valley did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
There were 1,555 students enrolled at Tri-Valley last fall and about 95 percent of them were from India, according to a complaint filed Jan. 19 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Many of those students, who took Tri-Valley courses online, could be deported if they are found to be in violation of their immigration status.
Indian officials say the students are being “treated like criminals” by U.S. Immigration Enforcement and Customs agents even though they were issued valid U.S. visas by American consular officials in India.
“I don’t think any of them had any idea this was a sham university,” said Susmita Gongulee Thomas, consul general of India in San Francisco. “I don’t think any of them had the motivation to defraud any rules of the U.S. government … These students came here genuinely to improve their prospects and they should not be criminalized or victimized.”
