India Network – INS Raid Victim Tells the Story

Violation of Human Rights as Narrated by
a INS RAID Victim in San Antonio, Texas, USA

Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 13:56:39 -0800 (PST)

From: Victim Victim

This mail is from the victim of INS San Antonio Raid. Please look into this mail as fellow
INDIANS.

Note: You are not authorized to use this mail against me. In any legal matters. This mail is written from my real experience only, no
assumptions. You can publish or use this mail to spread out without my mail ID. Forward any response to me.

INS Raid — From The Victim

Hailed from a respectable family from India. No criminal record in India. Finished Bachelors of Engineering in India
before coming to America for higher studies. Graduated from an American University with Masters in Computer Science
before taking up a job on practical training. Well aware of the immigration laws
in US during F1 student status.

Never been out of status during F1 Status.
No criminal record in America EITHER. Hired by a company in Houston during Practical training program. Changed status to H1B
BEFORE practical training expires. So no out of status here either. Hired by another consulting company in Houston, Texas, USA. Started
working for that company immediately after transferring H1B. So NO OUT OF STATUS
here either. As a part of consulting career , got assignment at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. and
moved to San Antonio.

 The Job:

Started working for the Military Modernization project which is a prestigious project for the whole United States Air Force community because it deals with their day
to day activity as well as their family history. What not, it deals with every Air Force personnel life time history.

Proud to be part of such a project. Been working happily for 2 1/12 years. There was an INS raid exactly a year ago, picked up some personnel for questioning in a
decent manner. Found a guy with some discrepancies with paper work. Didn’t care much because I’ve never been out of status and having all the valid
documents.  Nothing happened for another year. No Y2K bugs anywhere in the world esp. in US. Totally bug free in the US.
There comes another INS raid at US Air Force Base.

The day of INS Raid:

Started working at 7:30 AM as usual.  Around 9:30 AM or so, there comes our Lt. Col asking us to come forward and move to a
common area for an INS questioning.  Being un-aware of the things, picked up the documents that shows my legality in this
country and moved to the area where all my colleagues already present. Observed by that time the all the US citizens were out of the area. They are forcing all
the people look like Indians into the common area. You could be an Indian American a.k.a US Citizen, but by the looks, you are not alone to be detained.

I was confident that just by looking at my documents, any INS Agent would let me go free.

I  WASSSSSSSSS WROOOOOOOOONG.

They said they are picking up Indians working for 2 companies for questioning at INS local office.  ( Infact, they picked
Indians working for other companies also, and they let it go some other Indians. There are lot of discrepancies in their action, no one followed one particular
procedure.  It looked like they are totally confused.) There was a guy from a American neighboring country working on the same project. When INS asked that particular person for the documents, he said he dont have it right now, and don’t know whether they are at home or in his car. Strange thing happened, INS agents let him go. No questioning.
Nothing. Quite different case for Indians. They preached us that all foreign nationals in US need to carry the passport and all other valid documents
at ALL TIMES. All foreign nationals means only INDIANS??????

ENLIGHTEN ME, THE US LAW MAKERS AT CAPITOL. OR EDUCATE

THE SAN ANTONIO INS AGENTS.

The agent put a handcuff on me. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t read my rights. He didn’t tell me why he is putting handcuffs on me.

Then they paraded me along with my team mates outside the building where there was a
van which is already jam packed with other Indians working at the same building
including women. We waited for another van to come and pick us in a bitter cold
weather. when we asked them about waiting inside the building until new van
comes up because none of us had time to pick up our jackets, the agents started
making fun of us saying that we were shivering because we are illegal.
Again lawmakers at Capitol, enlighten me. 

In this country, No One is GUILTY until convicted.

INS doesn’t seem to care about US founding fathers intention about this.
They treated us like common criminals.

There comes a new van… loaded us, let me say again they loaded us literally into the
van and followed a convoy of about 3 vans and 5 cars.

At the beginning they don’t know whom to follow. So they stopped in between on
the road, started talking with others in the operation on radio. So they decided
to go the nearby apartment complex where most of the Indians are staying to pick
up the passports and all the immigration documents Poor Indians incl me,
thought, they will leave us after they see the docs. Nope.

They grabbed whatever they can at the apartments. If you have a house wife, they
didnt spare.  Asked who ever stayed
at the apartments to get onto the convoy with the handcuffs.
when somebody asked for bathroom. They asked us to wait until we go to
INS building which ½ hour away from the base.

At the INS building: 

They unloaded us, let me say again UNLOADED like common criminals at the INS office.
They moved us into the building during that time I saw a bathroom up there, and
asked the agent to let me go. He said you will have a special bathroom upstairs.
I didn’t understand what did he mean until they pushed us into a small room
filled with about 50 people inside and a toilet at a corner in that small room.
Now I realized that I need to pee in front of 50+ people. Thank god I didn’t
have a need to the second nature call at that time.

Then they started calling people one by one for questioning. If you are lucky, you
get a good agent who will make you let go. 

It seemed that the agents didn’t prepare much for what to do after we came. They
started horridly trying to open up the appropriate forms to fill up on the
computer. Some agents started enquiring other agents, which form to fill. Some
even looked asking how to print it, how to save it, what template to use , like
that. I don’t blame them for that. But to fill up a questionnaire of 20+
questions my agent took 2 hours as I was lucky. Some of other Indians waited for
4-6 hours for the same process.  It
looked like their main intention was to put as many people into the jail for the
night. Because they very well know that the bond office downstairs closes at 4
PM, and if we cann’t get the bond paper work by that time, we will be spending
the night in the jail. So they successfully made 19 guys and 4 girls to miss the
4PM deadline to pay for the bond, and sent us to the Jail.

 

Filling
the questionnaire at the Agent:

 

The
agent asked me whether I need an attorney. I still believed that I will be free
after couple of questions. So I said I don’t need anybody, and told him that I
will answer whatever he wants. I’m pretty much confident that I’m not
illegal.  After couple of questions,
I asked him what’s going on.

 

Then
he said its not your fault, its happening because of my employer. I didn’t
understand what he meant, if it is not my fault what THE HECK I’m doing here.
Then he said, I’m supposed to work in Houston, instead I’m working in San
Antonio.  I am totally un-aware of
this law point. Infact, 99% of the consulting people in this LAND OF IMMIGRANTS
un-aware of this. Because, when my H1 approved, all I got from my employer is
the approval notice and nothing else. How am I supposed to know what is my work
address if at all there is a law prohibiting H1 people to work in other cities.
H1 approval notice doesn’t say anything about this.  and the employer has no reason to give all the paper work to
the employee. So consulting people never know which address they are authorized
to work.

Consulting
business runs on this principle.

Work
assignments are scattered around the country.
So people like me never will know that there is a law prohibiting H1
people to work in other cities than the city they authorized to work.
I told him the same. Then he said if a consulting company wants to send
employees to different cities the company need to send them an itinerary of the
employee. Any body want to laugh at this moment, please do so generously. LAW
MAKERS AT CAPITOL, PLEASE EDUCATE INS SAN ANTONIO AGENTS.

So
Finally I realized that I am in trouble because my employer didn’t send the
INS agent my itinerary and didn’t update the paper work. I didn’t understand
one thing at this juncture, If the agent knows very well that I didn’t do any
thing wrong, Then why the hell he is harassing me. I ain’t no criminal, I got
no criminal record, I have no reason to run away from INS agents.
Instead, they can go and question the employer for his so called wrong
doing.

Any
way I started believing that moment about the stories I heard about INS.

So
he took my finger prints and all the regular stuff, and told me that I am under
arrest.  Thats when the first time I
heard a word about arrest.

Enlighten
me the law makers in US, is this the typical procedure for an arrest.

After
that it is all procedural, they sent us downstairs into a much smaller room, and
then into the van. The van took us about 80 miles from INS office into some
correctional facility. I think it is better I stop at this moment. People like
me….  well educated , well
respected, no criminal record…. never would have to step into such type of
facilities. The experience in that facility goes very much graphical in nature
and not appropriate to describe here. One thing thats the WORST DAY IN MY WHOLE
LIFE. It all happened because I DIDN’T DO ANY MISTAKE I DIDN’T HAVE ANY
CRIMINAL RECORD I DIDN’T COMMIT ANY CRIME I DIDN’T VIOLATE ANY IMMIGRATION
LAW KNOWINGLY.  I NEVER VIOLATED MY
LEGAL STATUS IN THIS COUNTRY BEFORE.

EVEN
THOUGH

SPENT
9PM – 4AM DOING THE JAIL PROCEDURES

WE
SPENT NIGHT WITH THE HARD CORE CRIMINALS

WE
STRIPPED OUR CLOTHES IN FRONT OF 25 PEOPLE.

WORE
FILTHY CLOTHING.

SHARED
A FILTHY ROOM WITH 8 OTHERS

WENT
FOR NATURE CALLS IN FRONT OF OTHER PEOPLE.

THANK
YOU VERY MUCH AMERICA FOR THIS TREATMENT FOR BEING A LAW ABIDING CITIZEN

The
strange and funniest part here is : Its all happened here in the United States
of America

which
is supposed to be by a land of immigrants where politicians preach about HUMAN
RIGHTS all the time and the most powerful country on the face of the earth.  Which is making laws at Capitol to bring more Hi-Tech workers
into the country, where there is a acute shortage of Hi-tech in US. Does INS
seem to care about the idea behind those laws?
H1 people are part of the drive that help this country to move into the
next century, they were part of the successful kicking the butt of Y2K bug out
of the mankind esp in USA

Is
this kind of treatment INS wants to give to the people who are part of helping
their own country?  I don’t think
people can doubt INS agent’s honesty in helping their country. Is this
specific to San Antonio only?  or is
it a new national trend after Y2K bug free millennium?

Excerpts
from my fellow victims experience in this raid:

You,
INDIANS, move here. You make more money than me. If I don’t put handcuffs, you
may grab a pen and kill me. (Reader can Laugh out Loud if you want to) I can’t
even afford to buy the kind of jacket you are wearing. You people make lot of
easy money. Why did you come to US?
Learn “——-“ language if you want to live in Texas.

Offered
BEEF burritos knowingly that Indians don’t eat beef.

Promised
to bring vegetarian food and gave with meat in it without telling about it.

Didn’t
care much about pregnant women who are on H4. Made derogatory comments about
India. Made fun of Indian Customs. More to follow.

As
per INS San Antonio:

H1
person is not supposed to work outside the employers company address or in a
city other than the one mentioned in LCA. If you do so, you are illegal (I
wonder how many INS offices will follow this rule other than San Antonio office.
The city where the smallest number of H1 people are residing)

The
employer needs to send the employee itinerary to INS if he works outside

If
there is a salary rise ( even if it is a single dollar), the employer need to
file new H1 petition.

The
questions or requests to US Govt.

1.  IS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NO MORE A LAND OF IMMIGRANTS?

2.  IS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NO MORE INTERESTED IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS?

3. IS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NO MORE INTERESTED IN HIGHLY QUALIFIED PEOPLE?

*************************************** 

Source:
The above message was posted to India Network by Sri Atluri Phani and we thank
him for bringing the information to our attention.

From:
Atluri Phani <[email protected]

Subject:
ins_raid_victim Story

Date:
Mon, 31 Jan 2000 16:53:36 -060

X-Mailer:
Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21

This
is the one of my friend Story, can you pass it to every one, can you

take any action in this one

Gracias

PHANI
ATLURI

CIVMOD
REPORTS

RANDOLPH
AIR FORCE BASE

WORK
pH:(210) 565 2698

—
Victim Victim <[email protected] wrote: