Berkeley students planning fraudulent course to circumvent ICE rules, avoid deportations

Hundreds of students at the University of California, Berkeley are discussing a plan to create an in-person course solely to circumvent new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regulations that could result in the deportations of international students on F-1 visas -- and they say at least one faculty member is on board, Fox News has learned.

The plan, which could run afoul of immigration law if enacted in its current form, was hatched hours after ICE announced Monday that foreign students in the country are required to take some in-person instruction or they will not be allowed to legally remain in the country.

"berkeley students are creating a 1-unit, in-person, student-run class to help international students avoid deportation due to the new ICE regulations," a Berkeley Urban Studies student wrote in a now-deleted tweet, which has been archived by Google. "love my school sometimes."

The tweet was shared more than 25,000 times before it was taken down. It linked to a longer Facebook post stating that a member of the Berkeley community had "found a faculty member who will sponser [sic] this."

The Facebook post clearly declared that the proposed course was not intended to serve a broader educational purpose for the student body, and "is ONLY for students who are international and need a physical component to remain in the United States." A syllabus was being drafted, according to the post.

The plan, which could run afoul of immigration law if enacted in its current form, was hatched hours after ICE announced Monday that foreign students in the country are required to take some in-person instruction or they will not be allowed to legally remain in the country.