US govt misled Indian students by setting up fake university: Indian American attorney

Peshawaria said that some students are worried that they will have arrest on their record for ever and have lost years of education to no avail.(Sunil Ghosh / Hindustan Times)

“We are not saying that our students are not at fault. They should have done their due diligence before signing up. If they are perpetrating crime knowingly, they should be punished but if they are trapped or encouraged to commit the crime then we need to help them,” Anu Peshawaria said.

Flooded with phone calls from panic-stricken students, an eminent Indian American attorney on Tuesday alleged that Department of Homeland Security knowingly allowed the “fake university” to be set up and misled students sitting hundreds of miles away in another country.

A day after the State Department blamed Indian students for the mass detention and possible deportation from the US for enrolling themselves in a fake university set up by the Department of Homeland Security, California-based immigration attorney Anu Peshawaria said that the undercover operation has devastating consequences for hundred of Indian students.

“We are not saying that our students are not at fault. They should have done their due diligence before signing up. If they are perpetrating crime knowingly, they should be punished but if they are trapped or encouraged to commit the crime then we need to help them,” Peshawaria said.