http://www.sjmercury.com/business/top/014754.htm

San Jose Mercury News

Posted at 10:03 p.m. PST Thursday, January 27, 2000

Arrests unsettle Indians with high-tech visas

BY PETE CAREY
Mercury News Staff Writer

The arrest and handcuffing of 40 Indian computer programmers in a raid
last week at an Air Force base in San Antonio is spreading fear and
uncertainty among Indians who have high-tech work visas.

The case has generated intense interest in India, where it has been
widely reported, and in Silicon Valley, where many Indians hold a visa
called the H-1B, which was created for those in specialized
occupations, including computer programming.

The State Department has asked for a full report from the Immigration
and Naturalization Service, which conducted the raid.

A spokesman for Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl
Inderfurth said Thursday that Inderfurth ``told Indian Ambassador
Naresh Chandra he regretted this unfortunate incident, that we are
looking into it closely and he had asked for a full report from the
INS.''

The programmers were led away Jan. 20 in handcuffs from offices at
Randolph Air Force Base, where they were working on two Air Force
personnel management database projects, and taken in buses to an INS
detention center.

A lawyer for one of the two companies targeted by the INS said the
arrest smacked of racial profiling. ``They went across the board and
arrested everybody that looked Indian. They did a profile,'' charged
Adan Vega, a Houston attorney representing one of the companies.

The INS denied using racial profiles. ``The Indians are pointing the
finger and saying, `You're treating us this way because we're
Indians,' '' said Thomas Homan, INS assistant director for criminal
investigations in San Antonio. ``No, we're treating them like
everybody else.''

Some of the 40 programmers held H-1B visas and were employed by two
Houston companies that allegedly failed to file for permission from
the Labor Department for their employees to work in San Antonio. Homan
said the companies should have advertised the jobs first, so that
Americans could have a chance at them.

Attorneys for the companies, Frontier Consulting Inc. and Softech
Consulting Inc., say they had permission from the Labor Department for
the workers to be in San Antonio and that the INS investigators are
mistaken about the requirement to advertise the jobs.

While the charge against the two companies may seem technical, it puts
their Indian employees' immigration status in jeopardy and places them
at risk of deportation.

Twenty-seven of the programmers now face immigration hearings. The
remaining 13 were released without being charged with any violation of
immigration law, including some who worked for the prime contractor on
the project, a company that wasn't suspected of any violations.

``They closed me in a cell,'' said one of the Indians, who was
released because he didn't work for either company under
investigation. ``A half hour later they called me out and said, `Why
are you here?' I said, `I don't know. You guys brought me here in
handcuffs.' They said, `You shouldn't be here. You can go.' '' The
programmer asked not to be identified.

``That's something I need to look into,'' said Homan of the INS.
``It's the first I've heard of it.''

The case struck a chord with Indians in Silicon Valley, who are
sensitive to complaints that H-1B visas are unfair to American workers
and who worry about complying with all the complex visa regulations.

``People are terrified they'll be targeted even if they discuss it on
the Internet,'' said an Indian computer scientist working in Silicon
Valley, who, like many, asked not to be named.

Nevertheless, the Internet has been abuzz with angry discussion about
the arrests and the way the 40 programmers were treated by the INS.
The programmers have launched their own Web site, ``H1B Victims.''
(www.h1bvictims.com.cnchost.com/)

One fear is that the INS will begin arresting people who don't carry
all their paperwork with them, which was what happened in San Antonio.

``I never carry my passport, H-1B approval notice or any such other
document on me. My company's lawyer has never advised me to do so
either,'' said Vijay Talati, a high-tech worker in Silicon Valley.

``If somebody walks into my office tomorrow and says let's see this
paper and that paper, well, nobody will ever carry a passport to
work,'' said Avik Sarkar, 25, of Sunnyvale. ``They could have given a
day's notice, saying all Indian nationals need to verify your
documents.''

Sarkar, a computer engineer who has an H-1B visa and works at a major
Silicon Valley computer firm, said, ``The only issue is the way it's
being implemented. If somebody did something wrong, OK, they should be
prosecuted. But you can't just bring the cavalry down on everybody all
at once,'' he said.

``We do have sizable population of Indian engineers working on H-1B
visas,'' said Sarkar. ``Our contribution to the U.S. economy hasn't
been insignificant, to say the least. . . . We get a lot of
professional respect from our colleagues. A lot of Indians and Chinese
are in top technical positions here. The INS needs to appreciate the
same thing, too.''

Frontier Consulting and Softech Consulting, both of Houston, furnished
the Indian programmers to the prime contractor on the Air Force
project, ACS Government Solutions Group. ACS Government Solutions is
the Maryland information technology branch of ACS Inc. of Dallas, with
$1.7 billion in annual revenue.

ACS, the prime contractor on the project, said it wants to get the
programmers back on the job as soon as possible.

``These employees were working on proprietary systems and are not
easily replaceable,'' said Lee Allen, the firm's communications
director. ``They are highly valued. The program manager told me
whatever it's going to take (to get them back on the job) is what he
wants to do.''

Allen said the raid was a complete surprise. ``We had no idea this was
coming,'' he said. ``Of course, had we known this was coming, we would
have taken steps to try to avoid it. I can say we never want to have
our employees taken away in handcuffs for any reason.''
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Contact Pete Carey at pcarey@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5419.