Fake US university exposes ‘pay-to-stay’ immigration fraud

BBC:

Twenty-one people have been arrested after US authorities set up a fake university to expose immigration fraud.

Officials said the accused knew that the University of Northern New Jersey did not exist, but they were unaware it was a ruse run by immigration agents.

The defendants acted as brokers for more than 1,000 foreigners who sought to maintain student and work visas, prosecutors said.
Most foreign nationals involved in the scheme came from China and India.

Immigration authorities will deal with the nationals affected, but they will not be prosecuted, officials said.

“This was just another stop on the ‘pay-to-stay’ tour,” Paul Fishman, US attorney for New Jersey, told the Associated Press.