Immigration fraud: Time running out for duped students in US
WASHINGTON: Hundreds of Indian students, duped by a California-based "sham" university, are frantically knocking at the doors of colleges begging for admission in their desperate attempt to save their academic careers and avoid deportation back home.
These students, said to be around 1,500, were studying at the California-based Tri Valley University, which was shut down by the federal authorities last week after investigation revealed that this relatively new academic institution had indulged in massive and wire fraud and helped foreign nationals illegally acquire immigration status.
Following a raid at the University building in Pleasanton, California, federal authorities swooped down on its students - 95 per cent of who are from India, mostly from Andhra Pradesh - for questioning and interrogation.
Immigration attorneys and Indian American community leaders who have been helping these students told media that scores of them have been a detained, released on bond, and many of them have been installed with Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (radio tags). "Time is fast running out for these students," said Ram Mohan Konda of the American Telugu Association .
"These students do not know where to go. They are being asked for thousands of dollars in bond and. At the same time they have to join any university as soon as possible so as to maintain their visa status and complete their studies," Konda said.
Konda, who has been in personal contact with a number of these students, said that they are not able to get any fresh admission because the SEVIS has been blocked. Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) of the Department of Homeland Security is the web based programme to track the foreign students in the US.
Until it is active, no university and academic institution can admit any foreign students to their campus. Also since the fall classes have already begun, it would be difficult for these students to get admission into any college or universities after a week or so, Konda said, adding that authorities have to act fast otherwise most of these students would be left with no other option but to go back voluntarily or be deported.
In some cases students are being asked for bond deposits running into thousands of dollars and a large number of them have been served with Notice to Appear (which is considered as the first step towards the start of deportation process).
Raj Akula, a Texas-based attorney, said that he knows at least 20 such students who have been subject to detention. While many of them have been released on bail, a few of them are still in the detention centres as they have not been able to furnish the bond money. These students are spread across the country, Ohio, Illinois, Washington and Pennsylvania.
One of the students was released early this week from a Ohio detention centre only after he furnished a bond of a USD 22,000, Akola said refraining from identifying the student, who do not want to be named in the press.
Another student in Ohio is still languishing in the detention centre as he has not been able to manage the USD 22,000 required for the bond. On behalf of the said student, Akula has approached the local court to reduce the bond amount. "This is outrageous," Akula said of the high bond money.
These students, said to be around 1,500, were studying at the California-based Tri Valley University, which was shut down by the federal authorities last week after investigation revealed that this relatively new academic institution had indulged in massive and wire fraud and helped foreign nationals illegally acquire immigration status.
Following a raid at the University building in Pleasanton, California, federal authorities swooped down on its students - 95 per cent of who are from India, mostly from Andhra Pradesh - for questioning and interrogation.
Immigration attorneys and Indian American community leaders who have been helping these students told media that scores of them have been a detained, released on bond, and many of them have been installed with Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (radio tags). "Time is fast running out for these students," said Ram Mohan Konda of the American Telugu Association .
"These students do not know where to go. They are being asked for thousands of dollars in bond and. At the same time they have to join any university as soon as possible so as to maintain their visa status and complete their studies," Konda said.
Konda, who has been in personal contact with a number of these students, said that they are not able to get any fresh admission because the SEVIS has been blocked. Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) of the Department of Homeland Security is the web based programme to track the foreign students in the US.
Until it is active, no university and academic institution can admit any foreign students to their campus. Also since the fall classes have already begun, it would be difficult for these students to get admission into any college or universities after a week or so, Konda said, adding that authorities have to act fast otherwise most of these students would be left with no other option but to go back voluntarily or be deported.
In some cases students are being asked for bond deposits running into thousands of dollars and a large number of them have been served with Notice to Appear (which is considered as the first step towards the start of deportation process).
Raj Akula, a Texas-based attorney, said that he knows at least 20 such students who have been subject to detention. While many of them have been released on bail, a few of them are still in the detention centres as they have not been able to furnish the bond money. These students are spread across the country, Ohio, Illinois, Washington and Pennsylvania.
One of the students was released early this week from a Ohio detention centre only after he furnished a bond of a USD 22,000, Akola said refraining from identifying the student, who do not want to be named in the press.
Another student in Ohio is still languishing in the detention centre as he has not been able to manage the USD 22,000 required for the bond. On behalf of the said student, Akula has approached the local court to reduce the bond amount. "This is outrageous," Akula said of the high bond money.
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Ushijima considers herself "Akiba-kei" or an "Akiba-type"j and has been interested in gaming, manga and anime since she was a kid. "I love fighting games," she says. That, and ero Evangelion comics. The 20-something-year-old first came to the attention of Japanese otaku in 2007 after a set of her cosplay photos took the internet by storm. Since then, she's become the country's most famous cosplayer, garnering attention from the Japanese media. In Akihabara, Tokyo's geek district, she's achieved idol status, with fans snapping up her self-published photo CDs.
She produces and self-publishes all her own videos and photos. She selects all the costumes or commissions them, picks the locations for her photos and decides the poses, leaving the nuts and bolts of the photography to the cameraman she selects, conceding that, of course, she is not a professional photographer. The imagery in the photos might appear masochistic, but Ushijima appears to be completely in control. "I don't show anything I don't want to show," she says, "and I don't do anything I don't want to do."
Once one looks beyond the skin, it's easy to read more into Ushijima's work. She does cosplay performances in art galleries and her photos do have more substance than one typically finds in work of this ilk. "These are not art," she's quick to say, adding that one must really define what art is. "These are just images, and there is nothing I want to say." But when probed further, she does have explicit reasons why she selects certain costumes or certain themes. Nobody has a $3,000 Evangelion-style rubber suit made on a whim.
