Online, the U. of Farmington Looked Real. Behind the Scenes, It Was a Federal Sting Operation.

If you know students hoping to earn a degree in mechatronics, do not send them to the University of Farmington.

Yes, the institution has an encouraging Twitter feed that flaunts royal-blue diplomas for a batch of Winter 2018 graduates. Yes, its Facebook page shares posts about the importance of observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day and articles from The Chronicle. And yes, its website dives into the university’s rich history, dating to the early 1950s, when “returning soldiers from the Second World War were seeking a quality and marketable education.”

But behind that online facade, there’s nothing there. Unlike the real University of Maine at Farmington, “the University of Farmington” is fake. Lurking behind the charming Facebook posts wishing students a “successful and fruitful 2019,” The Detroit News reports, is an effort by federal agents to lure undocumented immigrants and people who may be helping them obtain student visas.

The university was “opened” in Farmington Hills, Mich., in 2015 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and was used to identify student recruiters and others engaging in immigration fraud, according to the department. Agents began posing as university officials in February 2017, as a part of extreme efforts to crack down on illegal immigration just a month into Donald J. Trump’s presidency. They came into contact with a small group of student-visa seekers who offered to recruit other students for pay, promising them they could obtain student visas without actually taking classes, according to grand-jury indictments released on Wednesday.

It was an elaborate scheme, and it resulted in eight arrests. The recruiters caught in the dragnet were charged with participating in a conspiracy to assist at least 600 foreign citizens to stay in the country, according to the Detroit newspaper.

The website, dressed in red and blue and decorated with the university’s ostensible coat of arms, boasts undergraduate and graduate programs in accounting, finance, information technology, manufacturing engineering, mechatronics, supply-chain management, and — ironically — international business.

“Students from countries other than the United States are encouraged to apply to UF as first-time freshmen or transfer students,” the website says.

The university’s “Factoids” page goes on to make the case for the Farmington education experience. One hundred percent of students discuss classwork with a professor outside of class, it says. No classes are taught by teaching assistants, and the university’s president speaks four languages.

The University of Farmington is not the Department of Homeland Security’s first fake foray into academe. The University of Northern New Jersey, another purported for-profit institution, was also founded for the purpose of catching recruiters of undocumented immigrants and other groups that could be perpetrating immigration fraud.

In April 2016, The Chronicle reported, the department arrested 21 people on charges that they had recruited thousands of students with fraudulent pledges to obtain foreign-worker and student visas through the ersatz university.

And just as with the respected University of Farmington, the department played its act to the hilt. The institution maintained a constant Twitter presence, with weather updates and closings, and published Facebook posts about its push for brighter futures for its students.

Both websites are basic but enough to sell a small-budget, for-profit university seeking to recruit. Farmington’s Twitter account, meanwhile, was deleted on Wednesday. Federal agents had kept up an active presence on the network, even tweeting a video of a large turkey outside the “Office of International Affairs” with this caption: “A sign that Thanksgivings [sic] is near? The @UofFarmington Office of International Affairs has a curious visitor today.”

Oh, and don’t forget: Farmington is hosting a “UF2U!” event next Monday at 9 a.m. sharp.

Follow Lily Jackson on Twitter at @lilygjack, or email her at lily.jackson@chronicle.com.