Detroit Crackdown

To study in the U.S. has for generations been the dream of the young in many lands; currently, 145,000 foreign students are resident in the U.S., most of them of college age. For those living in Detroit, the dream has lately become a nightmare. In an unprecedented official crackdown, agents of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service have been rounding up foreign students who are working illegally. The INS work rules, mostly ignored earlier, are being enforced because so many native Detroiters are out of jobs themselves.

Michigan's INS Deputy Director Armand Salturelli says the number of citizen complaints increased as the unemployment rate in the state spiraled upward. The March unemployment rate in Detroit went to 8.8%, and reached 9% statewide--both significantly above the 5.9% national unemployment figure. Foreign students who need to work to support themselves must first get special work permits, but even with such a permit they cannot work more than 20 hours a week on an off-campus job (except during summer vacations). To retain their student visas they are also required to carry a full load of semester hours during their stay. Moreover, the permits, say the students, are hard to obtain.

Though students from 26 nations are being investigated in the Detroit INS action, and those deported have come from Great Britain, Ghana, Taiwan, Lebanon, Mexico, Jordan and Venezuela, the brunt of the enforcement has fallen on students from India, who make up from one-third to half of the 2,000 foreigners enrolled in the city's colleges. During a roundup in March, 61 students were interrogated by INS agents; 48 of them were from India. Of those students caught during the month, 14 have had voluntary departure dates set, 38 were permitted to stay and nine cases are still under review for deportation.

The large and well-organized Indian community in Detroit responded to the INS thrust by raising $2,600 in pledges and donations that will be used to pay bail bonds and to help needy students over financial humps. Some of the community's leaders have complained to Michigan Senator Philip Hart and Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Hart called the Detroit crackdown "rather harsh and drastic," and urged that students from developing countries be allowed to hold jobs "in order to take advantage of the educational system" in the U.S. The State Department, concerned about international repercussions, has denied that Detroit is the start of a national trend. Officials of the Department argue that the Detroit action was in direct response to local pressure, and termed the situation "unique."

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