Nabbed Indian software engineers fear uncertain future 

CHICAGO: Forty Indian software programmers say they were "completely shaken" by their arrest and humiliation by US immigration authorities from an air force base in San Antonio, Texas and apprehend an uncertain future in the country.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, they also said they were "apprehensive of being targeted" by the authorities. An attorney for the programmers said the action against them seemed to be part of a "crackdown on Indians."

"We are not sure how long the case will go on and INS (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) has told us that we cannot work till it is resolved. I do not know how long we can manage without a regular income," said one US educated engineer. "Now I feel that I would have been much happier in India," he added.

Narrating their experience, one engineer said: "We had just started work when we heard from the programme manager that all US citizens need to go out of the building. We assumed it was a routine military drill, until we noticed agents of the INS, all toting guns, at the exit doors."

"They asked us to step aside while letting all Americans go. They then questioned us about our names and name of the employer. Most of us were told we were under arrest immediately after we gave them our names. They had arrest warrants already and none of us could fathom what was happening," he said.

"We felt very humiliated when we were handcuffed and paraded through the hallways in the presence of our colleagues. They did not read us our rights nor were we told why we were arrested. Many of us pleaded with the officials to go to the restrooms. But, these requests were denied and we had to wait for about four hours. The immigration officials asked us for our passports and H-1 visa documents. But even those of us who showed them these documents remained under arrest," said another engineer.

"It was only when we reached the detention centre that the INS officials read the charges against us. We were told that we had 'failed to maintain status and comply with conditions of our non-immigrant status,' since we were not working in Houston, as stated in our petition, but in SanAntonio."

"They took our social security cards and drivers' licenses from some of us, and these people are now facing tremendous problems being unable to drive even for daily necessities like groceries," said one of the engineers.

"It appears that the INS action is a crackdown on Indians," said Rahul Reddy, an immigration attorney who represented the arrested engineers and got them released on a bail of $5,000 each.

He alleged that the INS officials used "national slurs," adding, "it is not normal procedure for INS agents to enter into a workplace, arrest and handcuff employees."

The normal course of action would be for the INS to serve notice asking the engineers to show cause why their visa should not be withdrawn for the alleged violations, he said, adding the agency was apparently applying a recent US Supreme Court verdict which stated that the INS could apply the law selectively to certain nationalities.

Joe De Mott, attorney for the two Indian-owned Houston companies that provided the contract computer programmers to the air force base, said they had broken no laws. The workers need not have been arrested. Instead, the INS should have written to the two companies, Frontier Consulting Inc and Softech Consulting Inc., advising that it planned to revoke the workers' visas, he said.

De Mott said the dispute rests on whether Softech and Frontier, which helped the workers obtain H-1 visas allowing them to work in the US, were in fact employing those workers and whether the companies skirted federal rules requiring Labor Department approval to move from Houston to SanAntonio.

"The law says if you come here on an H-1 visa, you have to work for the employer that brought you here on your H-1B visa. Immigration is saying they are no longer employed by the people that brought them here; therefore they are in violation of their visa status. Our argument is they continue to be employed by the people that brought them here for the H-1B visas." (IANS)

Source: TOI