As someone who works with a lot of foreign-born workers in IT, many of them continue their education in the united states as part of the visa and green card process. I believe the US provides acceleration and priority paths for the visa clock, and one of these is a post-undergraduate degree. So basically these folks are trying to speed up their immigration process by advancing their education. I am always surprised looking at resumes the number of candidates, specifically of Indian decent, that are early in their careers but have advanced degrees.

However, to play devils advocate, I also see many 'I never heard of that college/university' and I wonder if there isn't more to this story, like the ICE program was perhaps designed to crack down on people that were abusing the process by applying for what they may have known to be a diploma-mill or a quick fix.

On a related note, being a worker on an H1B here in the US, the sponsoring company really controls your fate and many of these workers are desperate for ways to take control of their status and wrestle their career trajectory away from their employer, as they are unable to easily change jobs or one slip up could end them back in their home country. Many of them have married here and have children/lives in the US and going back to their home country would be a very challenging situation.