81 students, including 51 Thai nationals, arrested in Florida for student visa fraud

81 student visa holders at the Florida Language Institute were detained, officials said, but one was released. The rest were charged with violations of immigration law and were being held pending deportation proceedings.

51 of the visa holders are from Thailand. The rest, investigators said, are from Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

The school's owner, Lydia Menocal, 58, and employee Ofelia Macia, 75, are said to have made $2.4 million profit over the past three years from helping foreign nationals illegally obtain U.S. student visas.

The suspects were charged with conspiring to commit an offense against the U.S., with Menocal facing additional charges for falsifying immigration documents. If convicted, they face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge. Menocal faces up to an additional 10 years in prison for making false statements on federal forms allowing applications for student visas.

The investigation "Operation Class Dismissed" started in 2007 when immigration officials received a tip that the school was issuing student visas without requiring attendance in class, said Anthony Mangione, chief of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Miami office.

Of the approximately 200 students enrolled at Florida Language Institute in each of the past three years, only 5 percent regularly attended class, he said. The school offered classes to help international students improve their English skills.