The US government set up a bogus college called the University of Northern New Jersey to lure criminals. 21 people were arrested on charges of fraudulent help to more than 1,000 foreigners, who illegally arranged student or work visas over the past 2½ years.

The arrested middlemen were aware that the University of Northern New Jersey had neither teachers nor classes nor diplomas. However, they did not even suspect the fake university was invented by the Departments of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Federal agents created a special website for the fake university in 2012. It guaranteed high level of education. This idea exposed the type of alleged criminal scheme that threatened not only the legitimate visa system but US national security.

“They (fraudsters) were all willing participants in this sophisticated scheme from the very beginning," Will Skaggs, a spokesman for the US attorney's office for New Jersey, said on Wednesday. One of the arrested confessed it was “not their first rodeo".

The arrested 21 middlemen operated from coast to coast running illegal immigration scam worth up to $1 million.

Those arrested were mostly brokers who recruited foreign students, who were mainly from China and India. They arrived in the US with non-immigrant visas and were staying in the country beyond legal time. Paul Fishman, US attorney for New Jersey, announced the Immigration and Customs Enforcement should conduct the investigation.