Federal Investigation Warns DHS About Graduate Fraud in Visa Jobs

According to a report by the Government Accountability Office, Federal agencies must work harder to prevent Indian and Chinese college graduates fraudulently getting work visas and jobs which are needed by their U.S. counterparts. The report hides most details of the GAO’s investigation, partly because the profits from white-collar labor trafficking cause routine and widespread fraud. In the last few years, for example, the Department of Homeland Security had dissolved several fake universities which used fraud to get real work permits for hundreds of Indians and Chinese graduates.

The report says DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has tightened oversight since officials discovered some of the 9/11 terrorists had used the program to practice flying aircraft. The report reads:

We also used publicly available hardware, software, and materials to produce counterfeit or fictitious documents, which we submitted, as appropriate for our testing. We then documented any actions taken by SEVP on the submitted petitions, such as requests to provide additional supporting documentation, among other potential actions.

We also found that ICE followed its established procedures and specifically identified GAO’s fraudulent petitions or otherwise took appropriate steps to prevent the petitions from moving forward in the process during our three Multiple universities have been independent covert tests of SEVP internal controls over the school certification process.

The report is titled “Student and Exchange Visitor Program: DHS Can Take Additional Steps to Manage Fraud Risks Related to School Recertification and Program Oversight. Multiple universities and individuals have been investigated for fraudulently issuing work permits via the Curricular Practical training and “Optional Practical Training” programs which deliver at least 250,000 white-collar workers to U.S. employers each year.

The fraudulent operations include the San Diego International Academy of English and Southern States University in 2011, Herguan University and the University of East-West Medicine in 2012, the New York-based Micropower Career Institute in 2014, and the Tri-Valley University in 2014. Federal individuals have also tagged three Korean managers in 2015, Daniel Cabanillas at Mercyhurst University in 2017, several Chinese students in 2018, five people in 2019, and Findream in 2019.

The fraud is not a victimless crime because it pumps more foreign graduates into the U.S. labor market, so helping to suppress salaries and diminish job opportunities for American graduates. Already, government programs legally provide work permits for a labor force of roughly 1.5 million foreign contract workers who hold white-collar jobs in the United States. Those workers include the OPT graduates, as well as foreign workers in the H-1B, J-1, E-2, TN, H4EAD and L-1 programs.

The GAO report urges DHS official to hire more inspectors, investigate, demand earlier filing of updated documents, and verify the bona fides of top executives at universities, train and supervise the university officials who are supposed to ensure compliance with federal rules. The recommendations suggest that some of the university officials moved from one fraud university to another fraud university, hid their real identity.

For the complete story, please visit Neil Munro’s story at Breitbart.