Last week, a federal appeals court ruling opened the door for Ravi and other students to sue the government after they received no classes or other training in exchange for the tuition they paid to Farmington. The ruling overturns the dismissal of a class action lawsuit Ravi filed in 2022 accusing the federal government of breaching its contract.
Anna Nathanson, an attorney representing Ravi, said in a statement that the appeal decision gives students who were “wrongfully targeted” the opportunity to “come to justice.”
DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on the decision.
Ravi was one of hundreds who enrolled at Farmington, a school founded in 2015 that had no classes or professors, but was instead run by undercover ICE agents.
When he applied to Farmington in 2018, Ravi, an Indian citizen, was already enrolled at a California university on a five-year student visa, according to his 2020 class action lawsuit. He was interested in the master’s program in information technology advertised by Farmington, which he “hoped would make him more attractive to potential employers,” the lawsuit says.
But after Ravi enrolled and paid $12,500 in tuition, he did not receive any notice even after contacting people he believed were Farmington administrators, according to the lawsuit.
Ravi also visited the university’s website to check its accreditation, which was listed as valid, the complaint says. Farmington “created a seemingly legitimate web presence.”
Farmington’s website featured photos of a modern campus, information about its science, technology, engineering and math programs, and advice for students in inclement weather, the Washington Post previously reported. Farmington was also on a DHS list of certified schools where international students could enroll.
“Ultimately, there was no reason for a student applying from out of state to know or suspect that Farmington was a fake university,” the complaint states.
In January 2019, a federal indictment revealed that the fake university was an immigration sting operation. Dozens of students who enrolled at Farmington were arrested for immigration violations. Eight people were also charged with working as recruiters for the school. Federal prosecutors said these individuals helped hundreds of students who knew Farmington did not exist enroll at the school so they could stay in the United States under the guise of studying at an academic institution. All of those charged in the case pleaded guilty, Insider Higher Ed reported.
Ravi left the United States and went to India. he was neither arrested nor charged, according to the appeals panel’s ruling. He later filed a class action lawsuit, but it was dismissed before appeals judges overturned that decision last week.
The panel made clear that its ruling was not about whether ICE was authorized to conduct its operations, but whether the federal government had “sold services,” the justices wrote. They ruled that the students who paid to enroll at Farmington could sue the federal government for breach of contract and seek reimbursement of their tuition.
According to his lawyers, Ravi’s case was sent back to the Court of First Instance by the June 25 ruling.
