Silicon Valley University, one of the most popular institutions in California for foreign students from South India, was abruptly shut down April 5, amid rumors that it was a “visa mill.”
The move came after Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter March 22 to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, complaining about the lax oversight of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which allows students from foreign countries to enroll at accredited U.S. universities. In his letter, Grassley stated that several universities with large bodies of primarily foreign students were in fact “visa mills.”