U.S. government regrets ill treatment of Indian programmers

January 27, 2000

The Clinton Administration has expressed "deep regret" over the treatment meted out to 40 Indian computer programmers working at a U.S. Air Force base who were handcuffed and paraded like common criminals after being arrested in an immigration raid.

Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth told India Abroad that he had called Indian Ambassador Naresh Chandra and expressed "my deep regret at the way the Indian nationals had been treated" by agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Inderfurth said his office was in contact with the INS and, after reading a preliminary report of the incident, believed the Indian nationals, working at the base in San Antonio, Texas, should not have been subjected to the shabby and humiliating treatment they received.

He said he had instructed his staff to get in touch with the INS office in San Antonio and the Texas regional office and prepare a complete report about the circumstances leading to the incident, so that he could take it up with top INS officials if it is found that the rights of the Indians had been violated.

Inderfurth, however, said he did not believe the Indians were specifically targeted because of their nationality or that there was any racial profiling involved.

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

He alleged that the INS officials used "national slurs" and added, "It is not normal procedure for INS agents to enter a workplace, arrest and handcuff employees." According to Reddy, the normal course of action would be for the INS to serve notice asking the engineers to show cause why their visas should not be withdrawn for the alleged violations.

Ambassador Chandra told India Abroad that India's Consul General in Houston, Texas, on his instructions, had been in touch with the local INS office to ascertain facts of the case and had challenged the agency to show cause for the action it took.

He said the Consul General had offered to cooperate with the INS if any laws had been broken by the "body shoppers" who had contracted the programmers, and to provide the Indian government with any evidence that would justify their arrest and humiliation.

Chandra acknowledged there have been cases of "body shoppers" who had been prosecuted in India for perpetrating fraud and violating the terms of the H1-B temporary visa program and said that was why the Consul General in Houston said India was ready to cooperate if any illegal activity had taken place. He agreed with Inderfurth, saying he did not believe they had been targeted because they were Indians.

Meanwhile, Michael Clark, executive director of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), which counts among its nearly 100 American member-companies several Fortune 500 firms doing business in India, said he was "appalled" when he read about the arrests and humiliation of the Indian programmers.

Clark said India's computer programmers, instead of "being paraded, should be honored for the contributions they have made to the development of industry in the U.S.," particularly the information technology sector.

Earlier, Congressman Frank Pallone promised to look into the incident while Sam Gejdenson, a member of the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, passed on the information on the incident to the House Judiciary Committee that has jurisdiction over the INS.