Language School Owner Plea Guilty For Smuggling in Foreign Students

The owner of a language school in Miami, US, pleaded guilty when charged with fraud. Lydia Menocal was arrested by the police for aiding foreign nationals in getting their student visas illegally. These ´foreign language students´ had never attended any class in the language school.

Lydia Menocal admitted that she has profited about six hundred thousand US dollars by making false statements on the immigrant application documents. She was conspiring with the foreign nationals to circumvent the student visa application system. However, she has agreed to pay back all the money she made as part of her plea bargaining with the prosecutor. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the language school has made at least 2 million dollars by running this fraudulent scheme.

Registering with a school without ever having to attend might be a dream come true for many students. However, under the current circumstance, the consequences are daunting. The U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement was able to arrest one hundred and thirteen ´foreign students´ suspected of conspiring with Lydia Menocal. Those who were arrested were found to be violating their F-1 visas by accepting full time job offers and never attending any language classes. The F-1 visa stipulates that the visa holders have to attend at least 18 hours of class every week. All the ´foreign students´ arrested are now facing deportation to their countries of origin.

The immigration department investigator said that Lydia Menocal and her employee Ofelia Macia were both signing the attendance sheet for their ´foreign students´. Ofelia Macia was also charged with failure to report a felony where she has pleaded guilty. The authorities said that the Miami language school was no more than a front put up to shade the visa mill activities. They said that the owner and employees regularly registered foreign nationals as their students knowing that they do not have any intention to study.

The owner of the language school will face up to five years in prison not withstanding that she is returning all the money obtained from her fraudulent act. On the other hand, all other language school employees might be looking at up to three years in prison.

The reason why such visas are illegal is not only because the immigration rules said so, but it is also because it concerns national security. During the September 11 incident, a few of the terrorists involved had also entered into the country using student visas, where they had never attended any classes.

This incident is not only unique to the USA, but happening all over the world. It was in November 2009, the British Council located in India was involved in a scandalous fraud to allow Indian students to pass the IELTS exam. The British Council employees had been alleged to be taking money to sit the exam for others, so that Indian nationals who cannot communicate in English could circumvent the UK immigrant visa application process.

Language schools should be vigilant about such criminal activities as it could potentially destroy the school´s reputation and security of the country.

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