HYDERABAD: “They are going to deport us all within a few hours,” Tri-Valley University student Hari (name changed on request) told Express on the telephone on Friday, the horror in his voice unmistakable.
With the university at Pleasanton in the suburbs of San Francisco declared a sham university for immigration fraud, hundreds of Indian students, many from Andhra Pradesh, braced up to be put on the plane back home in the next 48 hours.
Early on Friday, Eastern Standard Time, frantic students rushed to immigration lawyers, Indian-American associations, US consulate officials, anybody at all who might offer help or advice. When Express caught up with him very early in the day, Hari was taking the bus to a lawyer.
“They are torturing us, putting us in jail. My friend was taken away by the police 10 days back but hasn’t returned,’’ he said. The freind was among 20 Indian students detained and let off Friday. But they were put under electronic surveillance.
Some 95 per cent of the 1,555 students of Tri-Valley are from India, predominantly from AP. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has charged its founder Susan Xiao-Ping Su with immigration fraud and misrepresentation. Panic-stricken Indian students met the US consul general in San Francisco, Sushmita Gongulee Thomas, early Friday but found little immediate help.
“We are trying to meet high-level officials here but so far no Indian officials have come forward to help us. I cannot tell you what our condition is. Please do not mention my name because my parents do not know what I am facing here. It is very difficult to come back home like this, we have taken so much of money on loan for my education,” said Hari. The students are writing petitions to every agency they can think of.
They submitted one to the US Department of Homeland Security. It makes doleful reading: “We respectfully plead with you not to penalise us or our families and bring shame to our entire family and the village/towns we come from, by deporting us from the US and causing us loss of name, reputation, money, resulting in devastation to us and our families and crashing all of our dreams.”
Telugu Association of North Americal (TANA) president Jayaram Komati said he has asked two Indian immigration lawyers, Kalpana V Peddibhotla and Ashwini Bhakre “to offer free preliminary consultation and discounted representation fee’’ to the students. But he said each affected person has to seek legal advice pertaining to his or her unique situation.
Source : Indian Express