[NATIONAL AFFAIRS]

Another Tri-Valley: North Virginia University raided

[BY R. PADMANABHAN]

The University of North Virginia (UNVA) is in Annandale, Virginia, a suburb of Washington. The university is reported to have 2,400 students of which 90 per cent are from India and an overwhelming majority are said to be from Andhra Pradesh. Like the Tri-Valley University earlier, UNVA was raided by investigating and law enforcement agencies on charges of visa fraud. However the US administration has assured that it would protect the interests of hundreds of Indian students in the university.

Sources said the UNVA was authorized to issue I-20 form to about 50 students but had issued and enrolled a much larger number. “Today, officials from ICE's Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) served UNVA with a notice of intent to withdraw (NOIW) UNVA's authorization to admit foreign students,” ICE spokeswoman Cori W Bassett said in a statement.

In a day-long exercise, dozens of officials from different federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), entered the Annandale campus of the university and took away with them a large number of boxes full of documents and computer hard drives from its administrative division.

However, based on the experience of the Tri-Valley case, and given that India had strongly objected to the manner in which its students were treated, US authorities are believed to have informed their Indian counterparts that they would handle this case and follow-up action in a different manner.

Unlike Tri-Valley University, the focus of investigations here is not the students but the school. Officials made it clear that there would be no arrest, detention or electronic monitoring of students. They also said that the university would not be immediately shut down, it had been given a month’s notice to explain.

The university declined to make any comment; it did not communicate with its students and staff either, except for a notice posted at the entrance that said the university was still open but students had the choice to move to other varsities or look for other options, if they so wanted.

The present students would have one of the three options: continue at the University while it functions, seek transfer to another university and seek voluntary return to India.

In another major relief, visa status of the students would not be terminated, they would remain valid for their present duration, which would also provide time for seeking transfers while continuing in a valid visa status.

In another notice, ICE has informed the UNVA students that they have two choices continue to attend classes and maintain their active status, seek transfer to another SEVP-approved institution.

“UNVA students must immediately depart the country if they are unable to continue to attend classes and maintain their active status in a manner required by the regulation or if they are unable or do not wish to seek transfer to another SEVP-certified institution,” it said.

UNVA officials no longer have access to SEVIS and not be able to manage non-immigrant students records in SEVIC, the notice said.

As another US university came under the scanner, the United States asked Indian students to be alert to the existence of ‘predatory visa fraud rings and fraudulent document vendors.’

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has warned the Northern Virginia University that it could withdraw the school's authorization to admit foreign students.

ICE has kept the Indian embassy in Washington DC briefed, as a very large percentage of the 2,400 UNVA students are Indian nationals.

It is further understood that there will not be a mass termination of UNVA students SEVIS records. The US authorities are taking steps to provide necessary information to help the students transfer to other educational institutions in the US or go back to their home countries.