ICE operated a fake school, the University of Farmington, supposedly as a sting operation to identify people living in the U.S. on illegal student visas. But it was really just a scam, taking tens of thousands of dollars from those who applied and subsequently refusing to return it irrespective of their immigration status. An appeals court has ruled the victims can sue the government.
"The government's operation eventually came to light, but the government neither provided the paid-for education nor gave Mr. Ravi his money back," the appeals court wrote in its opinion.
Ravi, a citizen of India who was living in Houston when he applied in 2018, filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and all the other students, alleging breach of contract.
Ravi says in the lawsuit that he paid $12,500 in tuition to what he thought was a legitimate higher education institution. He says that he even received emails from people purporting to be university officials, giving it an air of legitimacy.
It really beggars belief how brazen this sort of thing is in the U.S., not least the constitutional gyrations that courts will indulge to allow it. Compare to civil asset forfeiture, where police can confiscate cash or property under the notion that the property, not its owner, can be directly prosecuted. People constantly talk about political violence brewing in the U.S., but when someone next turns a government building into ground zero it's more likely to be a random non-partisan guy angry about his Tacoma being stolen by the local fuzz.
