ICE raids University of Northern VA

Parent Cafe
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<p>Anyone in Virginia know anything more about this?</p>

<p>ICE</a> Raids University of Northern Virginia Offices | NBC Washington</p>

<p>"Dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided offices at the University of Northern Virginia's Annandale campus Thursday.</p>

<p>Agents have removed boxes of documents from a building on Little River Turnpike where the university leases two suites.</p>

<p>The university temporarily can't accept any foreign students, reads a notice posted on the door of the offices. UNVA students must leave the country immediately if they are unable “to continue to attend classes and maintain their active status in a manner required by federal government regulations,” the notice reads...</p>

<p>...The University of Northern Virginia is an unaccredited, for-profit private university that calls itself the most popular American university for students from India. Thousands of students are registered at three locations in northern Virginia.</p>

<p>If the investigation discovers the school improperly handled student visas, the school could face severe penalties."</p>

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<p>Good - it’s about time the government cracks down on sham outfits such as this one ‘might be’. They market themselves to foreigners under the guise of a valid educational institution and essentially rip off the students and bring in a lot of aliens who otherwise wouldn’t have the legal right to be here.</p>

<p>This has happened to some other similar outfits as well.</p>

<p>Note - I purposely said ‘might be’ above since I don’t know all the details.</p>

<p>For something amusing, do a Google street view of the ‘school’ -
7601 Little River Turnpike
Annandale, Virginia 22003</p>

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<p>Interesting - the Chairman of the board of directors of UNVA is apparently also a member of the board of the so-called accreditation agency for the school (American University Accreditation Council). The agency apparently also accredits a grand total of 8 USA schools. </p>

<p>For even more amusement Google street view this alleged accreditation agency.</p>

<p>At least UNVA has a disclaimer on their website that the agency is not recognized by the US DOE as an accrediting body - which makes you wonder why they even bother stating it other than maybe some non-native English speakers might miss this point.</p>

<p>I feel bad for any of the students who fall for these kinds of places and the quicker the feds crack down on them the better.</p>

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<p>LOL! Amusing is right! Glad that ICE raided the place. There have been a few places like that here in South Florida that have been put out of business, too.</p>

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<p>So, wait, what was going on with the student visas? Were they being granted to people who didn’t even study at an university or what?</p>

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<p>^^ I’m sure that’s at least part of the reason this was an ICE raid.</p>

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<p>It’s a bit more esoteric than this. In some ‘schools’ in the past one could apply for F-1 student visa (nothing unusual there) and get authorization for practical training (i.e. temporary work permit) from day one (not a good idea, can’t be done) and offer classes ‘online’ with little to no physical presence on ‘campus’ (also not a good idea for F-1 students) Google ‘Tri Valley University’ for details :-)</p>

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<p>As an international who had to legally jump through the hoops to get her visa…I want to punch these people haha.</p>

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<p>One of the reviews on the Google site calls it a “visa mill” … and notes that it is unaccredited and doesn’t actually have classes.</p>

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<p>DOE is the Department of Energy. ED is the Department of Education.</p>

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<p>I have lived in Northern VA for years and have never heard of a “University of Northern VA”.</p>

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<p>^^Me too. I’ve driven past that building on Little River Turnpike countless times & always thought it was a Korean restaurant. Who knew?!</p>

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<p>I’ve never heard of this place and lived less than 5 miles away for 6 years. That stretch of Little River is pretty much a “little korea” with restaurants, shops, etc.</p>

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<p>I’m a native of NoVa and thought there was confusion with Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale (also Little River Tpke). I would have been surprised to find them mixed up in something like this.</p>

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</p>

<p>The school gets the money without spending money for teaching. The students have free time to find jobs to support themselves, to pay lawyers for getting married,… It’s a win-win situation. There are schools like this in more than one state.</p>

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<p>I’d guess that creating confusion with the legitimate “Northern Virginia Community College” was an intention of the founders of the for-profit outfit.</p>

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<p>I too am in Northern Virginia and thought at first they meant the NVCC (community college) which is a great community college network - I have never heard of the University of Northern Virginia either but now I also know why - glad they were found out!</p>

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<p>glad they are doing it. now do it to the schools in CA next. best of all, it wont require nearly as much work because the people there are proclaiming loudly they are illegal.</p>

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<p>

I was too lazy to write Dept of Ed but figured most people would easily understand what I was referring to given the context. Initials can stand for more than one thing.</p>

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<p>Is this really a big problem in the States? I had no idea.</p>