The woes of Telugu students traveling to the US for higher education does not look close to an end as another 20 students were deported from Chicago, after US immigration officials revoked their F1 visas.
The Telugu Association of North America (Tana) has said that its representatives are trying to resolve the problems and has asked students to contact them at info@tana.org for help.
A report in the Deccan Herald adds that students from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were on their way to join universities near Chicago.
Fourteen Indian students who traveled to the US last week were deported allegedly after being detained and questioned for 14-15 hours in San Francisco, while another 19 students were stopped by Air India in Hyderabad. Both groups were heading to the Silicon Valley University at San Jose and North Western Polytechnic College in California.
Etihad Airways also barred another batch of 20 students from boarding a flight to the US.
We have seen reports regarding deportation of Indian students from San Francisco. As per information available with us, the deportations have taken place due to denial of entry to these students by US immigration authorities....We have strongly taken up the matter with the US government both in the US and in Delhi. We are closely following up the matter with the aim of resolving it at the earliest.
Vikas Swarup, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson
The US authorities claim that the two universities were blacklisted on its list while the universities claim otherwise.
Several students, who had secured admission to two universities that are reportedly under ‘scrutiny’, were allegedly publicly shamed when they had landed at the Abu Dhabi airport for their US pre-clearance (immigration), with some of them locked up for 16 hours and asked irrelevant questions before they were deported back to India on December 22.
Meanwhile, the Indian government has said that it has ‘strongly’ taken up the issue, with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj saying that India was awaiting for a response from the US State Department over the issue.
She also assured that the list of all universities blacklisted by the US government will be announced soon and that India has already asked for the list from concerned officials.
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