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US crackdown on illegal immigrants gives Indians 'flu'

Arthur Pais in New York

The owner of a popular Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights, the hub of Indian community in the city, worked overtime this weekend, waiting at the tables, and putting over 18 hours a day.

"Three of my waiters have suddenly taken sick," he said. "It is the 'flu' season. One guy gets it, and gives it another. Even my hostess has taken ill."

His cousin, an engineer with the city, was also pressed into working as a waiter --and the cousin's wife as the hostess.

The 'flu' must have been really contagious. For hundreds of Indian establishments including restaurants, newspaper kiosks, wholesale clothiers and jewellery shops, witnessed a scene similar to the one at the Jackson Heights restaurants.

Family members, wives and children were seen moonlighting as helpers in one establishment after another, not only in New York but also in such neighbouring New Jersey cities as Edison, Elizabeth, Hoboken and Jersey City. The handful of porno movie theatres and dozens of go-go dance bars, X-rated video stores, and porno merchandise shops, also struggled with large number of absentee workers all through the weekend -- and beyond. The X-rated business attracts hundreds of immigrants.

Many in the Indian community knew better.

They knew the 'contagious flu' had more to do with the Saturday's announcement that the justice department had busted the largest alien smuggling ring ever, and 21 ring leaders, most of them being Indian, had been arrested.

The operation is believed to have illegally imported 12,000 people from South Asian countries, such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Syria, for unnamed US East Coast employers.

Officials claim it is the biggest bust of its kind, though some immigration authorities and lawyers believe the 1995 dismantling of a smuggling ring led by Gloria Canales in the Honduras, had revealed that he had sent over 12,000 aliens into America

About 90 per cent of the immigrants in the just-busted cartel came from the Indian subcontinent; about 80 per cent of them from India, insiders believe.

The immigrants paid between $ 20,000 and $ 28,000 each for passage to the US, and the employers, who are still under investigation, often attached the workers' wages to pay for their passage. Most of the 12,000 aliens ended in the greater New York area, and the cities of New Jersey, located 10 to 20 miles from New York

The smuggling ring took in nearly $ 220 million over three years, authorities estimated, adding that the investigation touched more than 25 American states. Prosecutors have announced that they will be seizing the assets of smugglers, and deport the aliens following court appearances in the next few weeks.

Among the alleged kingpins who have been arrested is Guvantal Shah, nabbed at La Guardia airport a week ago, Paresh Patel arrested on Staten Island (one of New York's boroughs), and Abdul Samson, a New Jersey businessman.

Twentyone people have been arrested in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas as part of 'Operation Seek and Keep', a year-long smuggling and money-laundering investigation led by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service. A federal grand jury in Dallas charged 31 people in three indictments containing 58 immigration and money-laundering counts.

'Operation Seek and Keep' was launched over a year ago when the inspectors for the INS noticed substantial number of Indians being smuggled through the wastelands of Mexico.

"For many years, Spanish was the only language -- apart from some English - the INS officials heard at the surreptitious border crossings," said one source. "About a year or two ago, they began hearing Chinese, some Russian, and a number of Indian languages."

The preferred route: New Delhi to Moscow to Havana. Thereafter, the smugglers guided the would-be immigrants either through Central America to California or Texas, or smuggled them through rickety boats to Miami.

"Everyone is scared, really scared," said a grocery store worker, who had overstayed his visitor's visa.

But many restaurant owners and other businessmen whispered confidently that the 'crisis' would be over soon.

"President Bill Clinton wants to punish India in any way he wants," said another businessman, who, too asked for anonymity. "This is a publicity gimmick. He wants to show Americans that he is going to be very tough on these issues."

But, said the businessman, there is a big demand for low-paid workers, legal and illegal. "Otherwise, this economy will collapse," he said.

Meanwhile, federal officials who are jubilant about crushing a record-large smuggling operation say the battle to bring down alien trafficking is far from over.

"We fully recognise that other criminal networks continue to smuggle aliens into this country, and they will continue to do so as long as it remains such a lucrative business,'' INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said.

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