The University of Northern New Jersey (UNNJ) was a fake university created and maintained by the United States Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2016 to investigate student visa fraud. [1] It claimed to be based in Cranford, New Jersey, with plans to expand to Harrison, Hoboken, and Morristown. [2]
The UNNJ sting operation took place following several high-profile student visa fraud cases involving phony universities, most notably Tri-Valley University in Northern California, an institution that offered classes but did not require students to attend. [1]
The operation was created in September 2013 by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). [3] [1] [4]
The fake university had an extensive internet presence, including an elaborate website [lower-alpha 1] with a .edu domain name, a crest (bearing a remarkable similarity to that of Princeton University, itself located in New Jersey) with a Latin motto, and a Facebook presence led by the university's "president"—a "carefully crafted character" named Dr. Steven Brunetti who had a LinkedIn page. [lower-alpha 2] [5] The sting included a fictitious campus at 25 Commerce Drive, Cranford, New Jersey. [lower-alpha 3] [6] At the end of the operation, the rented space at 25 Commerce Drive was vacated and the website went down. [6]
The fake university was recognized by the State of New Jersey and was accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC). [5] The director of the ACCSC stated that it had accredited the "university" to cooperate with the federal investigation. [7]
In April 2016, Paul J. Fishman, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Sarah R. Saldaña, the director of ICE, announced that the sting operation had ended with the arrests of 21 people. [3] [1] Federal agents posed as university officials and worked with the 21 arrested individuals, who were brokers who recruited international students, mostly from China and India, to go to UNNJ. [1] According to federal authorities, the brokers knew that UNNJ did not offer real classes yet "charged the students in a scheme that allowed them to maintain their student visas and stay in the country" and in some cases illegally arranged for jobs and work visas. [1] According to Saldaña, the brokers arranged student visas for 1,076 people, most of whom will have their visas revoked. [1] The authorities described the brokers as engaging in illicit "pay to stay" visa scam. [1] [2] [6]
The New York Times reported that, "in interviews, more than a dozen students insisted that they were collateral damage in the sting operation, duped by both the brokers and the government." [7] The students said that they had been deceived by the government through "in-person meetings with the university's supposed president, letters confirming they could work instead of go to class, and Twitter messages about classes canceled because of bad weather." [7]
Rachael Merola, a senior researcher at the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, said that the U.S. government's establishment of a fake university was a "novel strategy" in combating student visa fraud. Merola said that the strategy was highly effective but would likely not be replicated in the future, stating: "If anything, the massive amount of coverage that this got would sound an alarm and might act as a deterrent in the future to unscrupulous agents and sham universities." [8] Ultimately, the scheme was replicated a mere two years later with the equally fictitious University of Farmington.
On May 3, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey granted final approval to a class-action settlement for all students who enrolled in UNNJ for any length of time, plus their spouses and children. [9] The settlement reverses many of the immigration-related harms suffered by members of the class. [10]
The settlement follows a decision by a federal appeals court that the students had a right to judicial review of the Government's decision to terminate their student status and take other adverse immigration action against them. [11]
The University of Northern New Jersey was founded in 2012 after several years of witnessing the challenges inexperienced graduates face in a diverse and global job market. The founders of the University of Northern New Jersey sought to better educate students by focusing on real world employment knowledge and skills that parallel traditional academia at an affordable cost. By assembling a dedicated and experienced staff who are eager to share their knowledge and experience with students, UNNJ is able to better prepare students to enter the global work force as new leaders in their field by learning inside and outside the classroom. The University of Northern New Jersey is nationally accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges and the Commission on English Language Accreditation. UNNJ is also certified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Student and Exchange Visitor Program to educate international students.(Archived March 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine (emphasis omitted).)
The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) is a program within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to manage foreign students and exchange visitors in the United States through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). The SEVP encompasses the F status, J status, and M status. The exchange visitor part of the program is managed by the U.S. Department of State, although the SEVIS system is maintained by ICE.
Saint Regis University sometimes styled as St. Regis University was a diploma mill operation that was one of about 120 connected institutions operated by an American fraud ring from about 1999 until 2005, when it was shut down by U.S. government authorities. The operation was known as "Operation Gold Seal".
Cranford High School is a four-year public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located in Cranford, in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and operating as the lone secondary school of the Cranford Township Public Schools. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1929.
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Stevens–Henager College was a private college that closed abruptly in August 2021. It was one of four educational institutions affiliated with the Salt Lake City–based Center for Excellence in Higher Education (CEHE). Established in 1891, the college had campuses in Idaho and Utah. It offered online and on-campus programs for associate degrees, bachelor's degrees, and master's degrees.
Optional Practical Training (OPT) is a period during which undergraduate and graduate students with F-1 status who have completed or have been pursuing their degrees for one academic year are permitted by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to work for one year on a student visa towards getting practical training to complement their education. Foreign students currently enrolled at a U.S. university can receive full-time or part-time work authorization through Curricular Practical Training. In 2022, there were 171,635 OPT employment authorizations. In 2021, there were 115,651 new non-STEM OPT authorizations, a 105% increase from a decade ago.
Everest College was a system of colleges in the United States, and with Wyotech, made up Zenith Education. It was until 2015 a system of for-profit colleges in the United States and the Canadian province of Ontario, owned and operated by Corinthian Colleges, Inc. In 2021, former Everest students were made eligible for automatic student loan debt relief through the US Department of Education.
Visitors to the United States must obtain a visa from one of the U.S. diplomatic missions unless they come from one of the visa-exempt or Visa Waiver Program countries. The same rules apply for travel to all U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands with additional waivers, while similar but separate rules apply to American Samoa.
The University of Northern Virginia (UNVA) was an unaccredited for-profit private undergraduate and graduate university in Annandale, Virginia, The university offered bachelors, Masters and doctoral degrees. Although UNVA was not well known within the United States, it called itself the most popular American university for students from India.
Unaccredited institutions of higher education are colleges, trade schools, seminaries, and universities which do not have formal educational accreditation.
A diploma mill is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without academic approval by officially recognized educational accrediting bodies or qualified government agencies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit. These degrees are often awarded based on vaguely construed life experience. Some organizations claim accreditation by non-recognized/unapproved accrediting bodies set up for the purposes of providing a veneer of authenticity.
The Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC) is a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the United States that provides national accreditation to private post-secondary educational institutions. It is recognized by the United States Department of Education as an independent accrediting agency. Established in 1965, it is based in Arlington, Virginia.
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Tamil Americans are Americans who are of Tamil origin. The majority of Tamil Americans come from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Significant minorities are from other Indian states like Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, etc., as well as from other countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Tri-Valley University (TVU) was an unaccredited university located in Pleasanton, California, United States. According to its website, the school "is a Christian higher education institution offering quality academic programs in Engineering, Business, Ministry, Law and Medicine at a Christian learning environment". Most of the classes for the school were offered online. The school was shut down after being raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to possible visa fraud.
Herguan University was a private, unaccredited, university and alleged visa mill in Sunnyvale, California operated by Dr. Ying Qiu Wang. As of 2019, its domain names herguanuniversity.edu and herguanuniversity.org appear to be abandoned.
Harris School of Business (HSB) was a for-profit college with locations in the northeast United States, and was a subsidiary of Trigram Education Partners. According to the US Department of Education, "HSB’s last day of educational instruction was Oct. 9, 2020, which serves as its official closure date for purposes of the federal student aid programs." Students may apply for a closed school discharge of their federal loans. HSB was founded in 1965 to provide post-secondary educations in allied health and business management. In August 2020, the US Department of Education cut off Title IV funds to the schools.
Axact is a Pakistan software company that runs numerous websites selling fraudulent academic degrees. The company also owns the media company BOL Network.
The University of Farmington was a fake university set up in 2015 in Michigan by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to expose student visa fraud in the United States. The sting operation, which was code-named "Paper Chase", was overseen by the United States Department of Homeland Security. Over 600 individuals were identified in the operation, many of whom face deportation from the United States for visa violations.
