Two Florida women have been arrested last Wednesday who are alleged with running a student visa fraud ring. The defendants are charge with misleading the US government while granting student visas to over 200 overseas nationals, who were actually not students. The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida and special agent in charge for ICE Office of Investigations, Miami Field Office reported the case on Thursday.

According to the panel formed for the case, the foreign nationals who had been issued the U.S. student visas were falsely enrolled in the Florida Language Institute, 947 SW 87th Avenue. Post 9/11 attacks, it is a major issue for the nation, since many terrorists involved in the terror attack were holding students visas, but they all misused the visas. It was also reported that some attackers, including the pilot Hani Hanjour entered the U.S. as a student for language courses, but he never attended any class.

The 9/11 attacks had spread terror to such an extent that immigration officials have become very cautious and started monitoring schools that enroll overseas students as to whether they are attending their courses or not. However, the Miami case does not necessarily have to do with terror activity, but of illegal immigration.

The accused Lydia Menocal and Ofelia Macia, the school’s employees, however, defended themselves that the petitions that were signed by them were actual visa requests for the students. The investigators are trying their best to find what the foreign nationals with student visas were actually doing in the U.S.!