What are "I-20 Mills" and How to Find Them?

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By CIS, Special for USDR

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has published a brief, informal guide to aid U.S. consular officers in properly assessing educational institutions when issuing visas for foreign students. These officers currently lack key information, such as on schools that are not accredited by any entity recognized by the U.S. Department of Education but which nonetheless are certified by the Department of Homeland Security to issue the I-20 form, which leads to the issuance of foreign student visas.

Thousands of such “educational” entities are permitted to cause the admission of foreign students. Admission to one of these marginal schools represents one of the easiest, safest, and cheapest ways to become an illegal alien: Come to the United States on a student visa, and then simply ignore the institution that made the trip possible. A large number of the students at these institutions drop into illegal status and are rarely deported unless they commit a major crime.

The paper shows ways to obtain information on such troubled U.S. schools. These institutions, termed more appropriately “I-20 mills,” can make millions of dollars by attracting students who will not receive an education, but will instead become illegal workers in this country.

View the entire report at: http://www.cis.org/critical-schools-data-for-consular-officials.

“Foreign Service officers should have complete information on schools when deciding whether or not to issue a foreign student visa,” said CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian. “Better access to information would decrease the possibility of another entity like Tri-Valley University in California, which caused the entry of approximately 1,500 alien ‘students’ and earned the school’s law-breaking owner some $5.9 million.”

The Center also provides a “Think Thrice List of U.S. Schools in Conflict with Federal Agencies” as well as an annotated checklist on identifying the schools which have questionable educational credentials.

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985. It is the nation’s only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States.