Students who enrolled at a fake university set up by federal immigration agents have the right to sue the U.S. government, a federal court has ruled.

A decision last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit means that the hundreds of students who paid tuition at the University of Farmington in Farmington Hills — created by undercover agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — have a legal basis to continue pursuing their claims in court.

In 2020, a lawsuit was filed against the U.S. government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims by attorneys on behalf of Teja Ravi and other students enrolled at the University of Farmington, which no longer exists after ICE shut it down in 2019 andarrested at least 250 of its students. The suit said the U.S. breached their contract with the students by essentially stealing their tuition money, about $11,000 a year for each student. They are asking for their money back and other punitive damages. But the legal claim was dismissed on technical grounds in 2022 by the Claims Court, which said the case lacked jurisdiction. Three judges with the appeals court overturned that decision on June 25 and remanded the case back to the Claims Court.

  • Rentlar
    link
    fedilink
    956 months ago

    Yeah, what is this? The ICE commits fraud, then blames it on the prospective students that their visas are fraudulent?

    • Flying Squid
      link
      386 months ago

      Welcome to the U.S. government. First time?

    • @stoly
      link
      25
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      Did you know that the CIA manufactured and sold crack to black people in LA to secretly fund right wing militias in Latin America?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      -306 months ago

      It’s certainly not entrapment. It’s something they wanted to do, not something they were coerced into doing.

      • @stoly
        link
        176 months ago

        You don’t even know what the accusations are. You just want an excuse to hate others.

  • @sleepydragn1
    link
    306 months ago

    It sounds like a lot of this case is going to come down to whether or not the students were actually told that the university was fake. One of the plaintiffs claims that he was repeatedly told over the course of multiple calls and months that classes would be starting and he’d get a normal course load, while ICE claims that it was made to clear to all students that it wasn’t a real university (i.e. a “pay to stay” arrangement).

    I obviously have my doubts about ICE, but if they were any kind of smart they should have phone recordings or emails proving that’s the case. And if it is, they can likely keep the money in the same way that undercover drug busts do.

  • Flying Squid
    link
    156 months ago

    $11,000 a year for fake college is still a pretty good deal for college. I hope their fake degree will help them get a well-paying fake job.

  • @pivot_root
    link
    13
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    I wonder how long it will be until the Supreme Court overturns this one.