NPG Deputy Director Tracy Canada can be reached by email at tcanada@npg.org.

Recently, I came across an article on the CNN Money website detailing yet another immigration scam working to increase U.S. population growth. It turns out, there’s a fairly major racket for fake student visas. According to the article: “brokers recruited foreign students to ‘enroll’ and allegedly created false student transcripts and diplomas so that they could fool immigration authorities and keep their student visas….”

In its most recent report, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records show 1.2 million immigrants are currently living in the U.S. through student visa admissions. In addition to bringing immigrants to the U.S. on false pretenses, the CNN article notes: “the brokers are also accused of creating false employment contracts between the school and the foreign nationals so that they could fraudulently obtain worker visas.”

Thankfully, this time federal agents not only caught on – but they are actually enforcing our nation’s immigration laws. Agents set up a phony university to catch and arrest these “brokers,” who ICE Director Sarah Saldana counted “amongst the [immigration] system’s most egregious violators.” According to CNN: “The 1,000 foreign ‘students’ have not been arrested, but their visas will be terminated and they will likely have to leave the country….”

All of this was happening while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a landmark immigration case: United States v. Texas, which could decide the fate of the Obama Administration’s controversial DACA and DAPA programs. (These dangerous programs would grant de facto amnesty to as many as 9 million illegal aliens!) In early 2015, to force the programs’ termination 26 states banded together and sued the federal government. In February 2015, a federal judge heard their voices – and those of tens of thousands of NPG supporters – when he placed an injunction and effectively halted the President’s plans.

The White House immediately filed an appeal to overturn this reasonable injunction – which it has taken all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Court’s ruling, expected later this summer, could determine the future of “Executive Amnesty” in the U.S. – as well as the legal status of millions of illegal aliens presently residing here. The case is hugely political, with “busloads of immigrants’ rights activists… on the court’s plaza to support the policies…” and almost nonstop media coverage since it began. In an unprecedented move, the U.S. House of Representatives was granted 15 minutes before the 8 justices to express its position against the programs. It seems that Americans from every walk of life are weighing in on this issue.

But now, along with the rest of the world, we will all have to wait. With no 9^th justice confirmed to fill Justice Scalia’s vacancy (and therefore no one to break a tie in a divided Court), the future of these reckless programs remains unclear. If DACA and DAPA are allowed to stand, the size of the U.S. population could skyrocket. Once legalized and on a “pathway to citizenship,” these immigrants could later sponsor visas for a lengthy chain of relatives – bringing millions more people into the U.S. (For more information on family preference in current U.S. immigration policies, see our 2015 NPG Forum paper All in the Family.)

As we wait on the Supreme Court – and as the Presidential elections draw closer, I only hope more concerned American citizens will stand up and demand real solutions to our nation’s population and immigration crises while there is still time. It is only when our elected leaders, organizations like NPG, and brave citizen activists like you all stand together that we can accomplish real change. We must not stop in our efforts – and we must continue to move forward in the fight to slow, halt, and eventually reverse U.S. population growth!

Thank you again for all you do!