Students who enrolled in fake universities set up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of sting operations can sue the United States, an appeals court ruled last week.
of Three-judge ruling The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the United States by an Indian student named Ravi Teja Tyagra.
The University of Farmington was established in Michigan by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2015 to crack down on student visa fraud, an operation that was publicly exposed in 2019 when eight people were indicted on charges of visa fraud and “harboring aliens for profit.”
According to the appeals court’s ruling, Ravi said in his 2021 lawsuit that he paid thousands of dollars to enroll as a student at the university without knowing it wasn’t a real school. He claimed he “contracted” with Farmington University for educational services but that the university “breached that contract and the promise of good faith implied in the contract,” according to the ruling.
“Though the government’s activities were eventually uncovered, it did not pay Ravi’s education fees or refund any monies,” the judges wrote in their ruling.
“Farmington students and their legal team are ecstatic that the Federal Circuit has ruled to give justice to 600 students who were unfairly targeted by this fake ICE university,” said Ravi’s attorney, Anna Nathanson. stated in a press release last Friday.
Congress has contacted ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
