Students at fake university created by ICE can sue the US, court rules

Students who enrolled in a fake university created by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of a sting operation can sue the US, an appeals court ruled last week.

O decision by a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a lower court decision that dismissed a complaint against the US filed by an Indian student named Ravi Teja Tiyagurra.

The University of Farmington was created by ICE in 2015 in Michigan with the aim of exposing student visa fraud. The operation was publicly revealed when eight people were indicted for visa fraud and “hosting foreigners for profit” in 2019.

According to the appeals court ruling, Ravi said in his 2021 complaint that he was unaware that the apparent university was not a real school and paid thousands of dollars to enroll as a student. He alleged that he had “entered into a contract” with the University of Farmington for educational services and that the University “violated that contract and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in the contract,” according to the ruling.

“The government operation eventually came to light, but the government did not provide the paid education or return the money to Mr. Ravi,” the judges wrote in the ruling.

“The students of the University of Farmington and their legal team are ecstatic that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has decided to allow 600 students unfairly targeted by this fake ICE university to have their day in court,” said Anna Nathanson, Ravi’s attorney. , he said in a press release last Friday.

The Hill has contacted ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.

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