Hundreds of Indian students seeking higher education in the U.S. were deported after immigration authorities cancelled their visas. The students were forcibly removed from the U.S. by available flights at the U.S. ports of entry.
Most of the students who were turned off from the U.S. were seeking admissions in the Northwestern Polytechnic University and Silicon Valley University in California. Some of them who were deported were already studying at various U.S. universities. Those students were not granted entry into the country while returning to the U.S. after their Christmas vacation.
Sai Kiran, an Indian student of DeVry University in Chicago, was deported when he traveled back to the U.S. to join his next term of his MS course. Immigration authorities used one of the photographs he took in a hotel in Hyderabad as evidence that he has worked illegally in a restaurant in the U.S. and cancelled his visa. Sai Kiran who was not given an opportunity to talk to the officials in the Indian Embassy, was forced to get back to India. Another student, Abilash, who was also deported, says that he was asked to wait for more than two hours and was simply handed a return ticket to Hyderabad.
Most of the students who were deported have written to the universities explaining the reason why they have not turned up. Some students say that they were forced to sign a bond promising to pay for their return tickets. Some had also paid for their return tickets. Immigration authorities at the Rajiv Ghandi International Airport (RGIA) say that, apart from students, businessmen, tourists and employees from India were also deported from the U.S. recently.
According to diplomatic sources, not only students from India were denied entry into the U.S. but students from China and other countries have also been denied entry. Many students who arrived with student visas at the U.S. ports of entry, did not even know what courses they are going to study in U.S. universities. They did not know where they will stay or how they will meet their expenses. Similarly, immigration authorities claimed that most universities to which the students were admitted were blacklisted. These are few reasons why they were sent back.
Many believe that the U.S. consulates in India have not conducted proper checks on the students’ academic background before issuing them student visas and this could be a reason why so many students have been denied entry. Unless the U.S. finds a quick fix, Indian students planning to study in the U.S. will continue to suffer.