San Antonio Express-News Metro & State News


American dream on hold for Indians
Couple arrested in base raid last week


(Last updated Thursday, Jan 27, 2000)



By Sig Christenson
Express-News Staff Writer




Venugopal Sabbani and his wife, Rajshree Row, now five months pregnant,
came to the United States to work and, perchance, to dream.


But their tranquil, relatively obscure lives as computer programmers at
Randolph AFB abruptly ended last week when they and 38 other Indian
nationals were arrested by U.S. immigration agents.


The Immigration and Naturalization Service raid at the Air Force Personnel
Center at Randolph turned their American dream into a living nightmare, one
in which the fear of deportation is punctuated by haunting memories of
being handcuffed as co-workers looked on.


"I have done nothing wrong here," Sabbani, 31, said, repeating it at times
like a mantra. "I have nothing against the country.


"I like the country."


The INS has not accused Sabbani, his wife or the other workers jailed in
the Randolph raid of knowingly being involved in a type of visa fraud
dubbed "body shopping."


The agency alleges that two Houston-based firms subcontracting for AFPC's
prime contractor on two computer projects may have broken the law by
claiming they'd place the workers in Houston, then later shifting them to
San Antonio.


The companies, Frontier Consulting Inc. and Softech Consulting Inc., deny
violating any laws, Alamo City attorney Joe De Mott said.


He said the dispute centers over whether the firms, which helped the
Indians obtain visas allowing them to work in the United States, were their
employers, and whether the firms skirted federal rules requiring Labor
Department approval to move the Indians to San Antonio.


It was the Indians, however, who were taken to an INS detention center,
where 27 later were freed on $5,000 bond. Another 13 were released on their
own recognizance pending further investigation.


They are likely to face court hearings next week that could lead to their
deportation.


It's a tough turn for the programmers, who were brought to the United
States on behalf of high-tech firms desperately in search of talented,
degreed professionals.


"We felt so humiliated when they handcuffed us in front of our fellow
colleagues and paraded us down through the hallways looking for their van,"
a group of the Indians stated in an e-mail message sent to the San Antonio
Express-News.


The group members declined to identify themselves or submit to an
interview, but their outrage was echoed Thursday by Indian Ambassador
Naresh Chandra.


"In India, we are not used to handcuffing decent people," he said by phone,
explaining that such restraints are only used if a person is a flight risk.
"These are not pickpockets, thieves or infiltrators. They are people who
are doing their work."


Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth this week told
Chandra he regretted the incident and expects a report from the INS, State
Department spokesman Len Scensny said.


Thomas Homan, the INS assistant district director of criminal
investigations, defended handcuffing the workers, saying it's required by
policy. He also noted that eight INS agents, all wearing business suits
with their sidearms hidden, were on hand to arrest the programmers.


As AFPC began the week with its own investigation, 13 of the Indians
returned to work. Several, though, called in sick Thursday, reducing the
number of Indian programmers there from a high of 76 to 25, said Lee Allen,
a spokesman for ACS Government Services Group.


ACS is the prime contractor.


"I think they're scared," Allen said.


"They want to fight," De Mott said. "They're a little angry, a little
apprehensive."


Sabbani and his wife just would like to go to work. The rent on their
one-bedroom apartment in Universal City, $505, is due Tuesday. Then there's
the $400 monthly payment on his 1999 Toyota Corolla due Feb. 18. He and his
wife went grocery shopping Thursday and have enough food to last a week or so.


They are digging into their savings, but will be broke in a month or two
without help. ACS' Lee said he "could imagine" the subcontractors were
arranging to help the families but conceded, "I haven't any clue."


Sabbani, in turn, is just as clueless about how things soured so fast.


"We have been having a normal life," he said. "We're expecting a baby and
were happy, and suddenly this happens."


Sabbani's sojourn to America began with a phone call from Frontier in May
1997. Holding master's degrees in computer applications and business
administration, he won a job offer after fielding questions from his house
in Hyderabad, a city in southern India.


Once in America, he began working at Randolph as a software
trouble-shooter. Rajshree Row, who has three master's degrees, has worked
at AFPC for three months.


Drawn to America because "this is the Number One country," a place of
opportunity and myriad personal freedoms, Sabbani is fascinated by its
history and heroes. He has read of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln,
and said he had dreamed of staying here after his six-year visa expired.


But now Sabbani and his wife spend their days at their apartment where he
reads "The Winning Attitude," a motivational book.


Both wait. And hope.


"We don't like to sit at home," he said. "That's the worst part."