Trump-Era Official Warns of ‘Widespread’ Student Visa Fraud

by Benjamin Vogel

 

The student visa program is susceptible to fraud, according to a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.

Jon Feere spoke to The College Fix about his findings on student visa fraud, which he has written is “widespread.” Prior to joining the Center for Immigration Studies, Feere (pictured) worked as a senior advisor to ICE and as its chief of staff in the Trump administration.

The “fraud is “quite common,” the Trump administration official told The Fix via email. The Fix had asked about the specific example of an Indian student at Lehigh University who lied about his academic background, including creating fake transcripts. The university gave the student a full-ride scholarship and even paid for his travel to and from India after he faked the death of his father.

The fraud only ended after the student “admitted to committing extensive fraud on a lengthy post on the Reddit online forum,” Feere wrote in his report. “He is now in ICE custody and faces deportation.”

According to Feere, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department has given no clear ways for schools to address visa fraud.

“The federal government is apparently relying entirely on school admission officials for stopping fraud despite the fact that they’re clearly not capable of doing so,” the immigration expert told The Fix.

“U.S. schools apparently don’t have an official list of contact information for the foreign schools from which foreign students are applying” and “no expectations from DHS that they make any effort to verify contact information from foreign schools.”

He said American universities “don’t have the capacity to figure out if a foreign student’s financials are accurate and are handing out full scholarships to fraudsters.”

One problem is that “too many schools” have been “certified to enroll foreign students,” which means the federal government cannot keep tabs on all of them.

“Fewer certifications and higher standards are necessary if our foreign student program is to maintain any legitimacy,” Feere told The Fix.

“DHS needs to assist schools in fraud detection and standardize the process,” the immigration expert said. “American schools should ensure the foreign schools they contact are “legitimate” and “only go through approved channels of communication.”

“The most destructive thing to any government program is fraud,” Feere said. There should be “serious and immediate reform.”

In order to be eligible for accepting foreign students on visa, schools must be certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). Despite this, Feere found the visa program lacks strong mechanisms to detect fraud.

Consequently, many schools in America have been left to carry the burden of vetting visa program applicants under inadequate standards, he said.

Homeland Security disputes allegations

A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to Feere’s concerns in response to questions from The Fix.

The student visa program “analyzes student and school records to ensure compliance with federal regulations” and “collaborates with Homeland Security Investigations…on cases involving fraud, security concerns, or potential national security violations,” spokeswoman Paige Hughes told The Fix.

SEVP also uses “a tip line” to be notified about potential cases of fraud from “a variety of stakeholders including educational institutions.”

The program removed 269 schools in fiscal year 2024 and also investigated 290 tips, Hughes told The Fix.

Furthermore, SEVP “conducts site visits at employers who hire nonimmigrant students ensuring the practical training program is operating in accord with the regulations”

The program provides guidelines to American colleges and universities “on compliance issues, security concerns, and trends relating to schemes targeting foreign students” through a network of “nearly 45,000 designated school officials.”

The student visa program also engaged in “dozens of unannounced site visits at schools and businesses across the country.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it is continuing to expand its fraud detection and prevention programs, including improving its data systems and “increasing the number of unannounced site visits to certified schools and businesses.”

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College Fix contributor Benjamin Vogel is a student at Hope College studying political science and philosophy.