The University of Farmington had no staff, no professors, no curriculum, and no classes.
But it did have hundreds of foreign “students,” who may now face deportation because of their willingness to participate in what authorities described as a “pay to stay” scheme in which they could live and work in the US under false pretenses.
It was part of a sting by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents who were secretly running the fake university in Farmington, Michigan, in an attempt to crack down on immigration fraud.
Citing a federal grand-jury indictment, The Detroit News, the first to report on the sting, said ICE’s fake university led to the arrest of eight student recruiters on charges that they participated in a conspiracy to help at least 600 foreign nationals stay in the US illegally by committing visa fraud.