Washington: Regretting the inconvenience caused to Indian students, the US has said it wants to quickly resolve the 'visa fraud' issue leading to the closure of the California-based Tri-Valley University even as radio tags were removed from three more students.
"We have reiterated over the course of the last several days our commitment to work very closely with the Indian government. We understand the concerns the government has. We want to resolve these cases and those that are just ensnared in somebody else's fraud. We understand that they've been put in kind of a limbo status as a result of this.
We regret that very much, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters here. "We we have strong suspicions that visa fraud has occurred. It is a matter of great concern to us as a country. It's a matter of great concern to India as a country. We will seek to resolve this as quickly as we can. We will pledge to keep Indian authorities fully informed. But we have to go through this investigation first," he said.
India's Consul General in San Francisco Susmita Gongulee Thomas said Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) have removed radio tags from three more Indian students and returned their passports along with the two others, from whom radio tags were removed last week.
In all radio tags so far has been removed from five of the 18 Indian students. According to a federal complaint filed in a California court in January, the TVU had helped foreign nationals illegally acquire immigration status. The university is said to have 1,555 students.
As many as 95 per cent of these students are Indian nationals, the complaint said. Investigations by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have found that while students were admitted to various residential and on-line courses of the university and on paper lived in California, but in reality they 'illegally' worked in various parts of the country as far as Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Texas. ICE has called it as a 'Sham University', a charge denied by the TVU.
The US fully understands the point made by Indian government that the closure of this university has put in limbo the academic career of Indian students, Crowley said, adding that the issue has been a subject of discussion between New Delhi and Washington which involves Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"We have ongoing concerns both in this case and more broadly about instances of visa fraud. We need to continue to investigate how these things happen and try to do everything we can to prevent them from occurring in the future," Crowley said. "That said, we do understand that there are students who have been caught up in this. It has been the subject of discussions with Secretary Clinton and others and also with the Indian embassy here, our embassy in India," he said.