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More Students From Fake University Arrested, Deported

FILE -A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer looks on during an operation in Escondido, Calif., July 8, 2019.
FILE -A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer looks on during an operation in Escondido, Calif., July 8, 2019.

More international students who said they were attending a university that was actually a shell created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have been arrested in Michigan on immigration charges in recent months.

DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) created the University of Farmington to expose weaknesses in the student visa immigration process, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Helms wrote in a sentencing memo, as reported by the Detroit Free Press. The paper broke the story last spring.

“While ‘enrolled’ at the university, 100 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,” the memo said.

While the students were granted student visas to enter the U.S., they were in violation when they did not actually attend the school, federal agencies said. Of about 250 people arrested, more than 200 students voluntarily left the U.S., and 50 stayed until being arrested or deported, the Free Press reported. ICE officials said many of the students were from India.

The paper reported that some students — claiming they were entrapped by the U.S. government, which operated the fake university — hired attorneys to defend their right to stay.

It remains unclear what happened to the tuition and fees paid by the students. It cost approximately $12,000 to enroll in the fake school, the Free Press reported.

Last winter, eight people were arrested and indicted for conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harboring aliens for profit. Federal agencies said those charged helped at least 600 “foreign citizens to illegally remain, reenter and work in the United States and actively recruited them to enroll in a fraudulent school as part of a ‘pay to stay’ scheme.”

After conviction, the eight were sentenced to between 12 and 24 months. They face deportation after they serve their terms.

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Proposal Would Remove Student Aid for Those Who Support Some Palestinian Groups

FILE - A Palestinian protester shouts slogans during a protest near the the Egyptian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, Nov. 18, 2023.
FILE - A Palestinian protester shouts slogans during a protest near the the Egyptian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, Nov. 18, 2023.

A Florida lawmaker has proposed eliminating scholarships, tuition breaks and fee waivers for students who are suspected of “promoting terrorist organizations.”

According to WOKV television, the bill appears to be in line with Florida efforts to disband pro-Palestinian groups on college campuses. (November 2023)

International College Student Enrollment in US Soars

FILE - Students walk across the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 6, 2023.
FILE - Students walk across the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 6, 2023.

International student enrollment at U.S. schools has bounded back from pandemic lows, Forbes reports. It increased 12% in 2022-23, the fastest growth rate in more than 40 years. Read the full story here. (November 2023)

US Lawmakers Grill University Presidents About On-Campus Antisemitism

Harvard University President Claudine Gay testifies before a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing titled "Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism" on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Dec. 5, 2023.
Harvard University President Claudine Gay testifies before a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing titled "Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism" on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Dec. 5, 2023.

The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were questioned by House lawmakers on Tuesday over whether their administrations are doing enough to combat the wave of antisemitism that has swept their campuses as the Israel-Hamas war rages.

Republican Representative Virginia Foxx said the three presidents were called to testify because “we heard in particular that the most egregious situations have occurred on these campuses.”

Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University, faced particularly difficult lines of questioning from congressional Republicans, including one fraught exchange with Representative Elise Stefanik, who demanded that Gay resign.

Stefanik, a Harvard alumnus herself, grilled Gay over whether the university would rescind admission offers to students who support Hamas’ murderous beliefs.

Gay pushed back, saying she would not commit to punishing students simply for expressing their views, even if she finds them “personally abhorrent,” apparently reversing university policy.

In 2017, Harvard reneged on admission offers for 10 would-be students after it came out that they circulated racist memes in a group chat.

The theme of Gay’s testimony was her dual commitment to “combating hate while preserving free expression.”

Gay said her administration would only punish “hateful, reckless, offensive speech” when it crosses the line into physical violence or targeted harassment.

Foxx, the panel’s chair, railed against Gay and the other university leaders, claiming that “institutional antisemitism and hate are among the poisoned fruits of your institutions’ cultures."

Republican lawmakers repeatedly criticized progressivism and tied it to antisemitism in higher education.

All three university presidents outlined their strategies for ensuring student safety and open discourse on the Israel-Hamas war.

"As an American, as a Jew, and as a human being, I abhor antisemitism. And my administration is combating it actively,” Sally Kornbluth, president of MIT, said, adding that “problematic speech needs to be countered with other speech and education.”

Kornbluth said free speech that promotes harassment or incites violence is not protected by the university, but those who try to shut down campus protests are essentially advocating for unworkable “speech codes."

Harvard and UPenn have struggled. Both schools found themselves under investigation by the Department of Education over complaints of antisemitism on campus.

“This is difficult work, and I know I have not always gotten it right,” Gay said of her efforts to promote free speech and inclusion. She noted the difficulty of balancing the concerns of different groups, including Harvard’s Muslim community, which Gay noted faces the threat of rising Islamophobia.

“During these difficult days, I have felt the bonds of our community strained,” Gay told lawmakers.

UPenn President M. Elizabeth Magill came under fire for the Palestine Writes Festival, an event hosted at her university in September that was a flashpoint of antisemitism, according to a complaint submitted to the Department of Education.

U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik speaks during a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing titled "Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 5, 2023.
U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik speaks during a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing titled "Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 5, 2023.

Magill condemned antisemitic rhetoric at the festival but maintained that measures had been instituted to ensure student safety.

The presidents made clear to the Republican-run House Committee on Education and the Workforce that their schools have taken steps to prevent harassment and bullying, including public announcements.

The president of Columbia was invited but did not attend, citing a scheduling conflict, Foxx’s office said.

November polling by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel found that, since Oct. 7, 46% of Jewish students felt safe at their colleges, a marked drop from 67% before the war. Students across the nation said they were wary of walking around their campuses wearing a Star of David necklace, kippah or other emblems of Judaism.

In late October, an upperclassman at Cornell was taken into federal custody after allegedly making online posts promising to kill any and every Jew he saw on campus.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations and other advocacy groups reported that hate crimes against Muslim students were also on the rise.

Last month, a white man allegedly shot three Palestinian American college students in Burlington, Vermont. And, at Stanford, an Arab student was struck in a hit-and-run as the driver shouted, “F— you people!” according to witnesses.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have been doxxed — their names and pictures paraded around their campuses on mobile billboard trucks — in what activists say are attempts to intimidate them into silence.

China the No. 1 Country Sending Students to US, Data Show

FILE - A woman walks on the Columbia University campus, March 9, 2020, in New York.
FILE - A woman walks on the Columbia University campus, March 9, 2020, in New York.

China, India and South Korea sent the most students to the U.S. in 2023, according to Open Doors 2023 Report on International Educational Exchange. Open Doors is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

Among other things, the report broke down the schools with the largest number of international students. New York University took the top spot, with Northeastern University, Columbia University, Arizona State University and the University of Southern California rounding out the top five. Get the stats here. (November 2023)

International Students Boosted US Economy by $40 Billion in 2022-23

FILE - Students walk past an entrance to Boston University College of Arts and Sciences in Boston, Nov. 29, 2018.
FILE - Students walk past an entrance to Boston University College of Arts and Sciences in Boston, Nov. 29, 2018.

In the 2022-23 academic year, more than 1 million international students were in the U.S., and they contributed more than $40 billion to the U.S. economy, Forbes reports.

That figure's up 19% from the previous academic year, according to NAFSA: Association for International Educators.

Read the full story here. (November 2023)

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