Four influential US Senators have appealed to authorities, demanding a crackdown on “sham universities” helping foreign nationals “illegally” enter into America.

“These sham universities are not real institutions of higher learning, but rather, operate solely for the purpose of manipulating immigration law to admit foreign nationals into the country,” the four Senators said in a letter to Mr Alejandro Mayorkas, Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Written by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Claire McCaskill, Charles Schumer and Jon Tester, the letter was released to the press on Monday.

“‘Sham universities’ are gaming the system, and while they are at it, they’re putting our nation’s security at risk. This has got to stop,” Mr McCaskill said.

“America is a nation of laws, and as we keep working to fully secure our nation’s borders, we’ve got to lock any other back door that people are using to illegally enter our country.

“By abusing the system and ignoring our laws, these sham schools are threatening our security and threatening what student visas are supposed to accomplish. I’m fighting to make sure every one of these shams gets shut down,” said Mr Tester, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

The Senators outlined a plan to combat such fake universities, which includes developing a list of high-risk factors that point to fraud within 90 days; conduct site visits to every school that uses student visas and that exhibits such high risk factors within the next year; implementing greater information sharing between federal agencies regarding schools granting student visas and requiring stiffer penalties.

They referred to the recent incident involving the Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, California, where over 1,500 students from foreign countries obtained student visas to enrol in an unaccredited school that failed to provide the education required under America’s student visa laws.

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