The Pacific News Service spotlights the stories of some foreign South Asian students who are coping with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.  Specifically the story focuses on their fears of being deported if they are unable to stay enrolled in a school that has been knocked out of commission, or if they seek out help from FEMA in these post-9/11 times:

"We're homeless. We cannot work off campus. We are in a bad situation. Everyone is trying to survive. We are moving from place to place."

Tulane University student Azad, who wouldn't give his last name lest "I get into trouble," was not just mouthing off. He meant every word of what he said, and what he said was an echo of what a number of other immigrant students from the Indian sub-continent were saying in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The hurricane that hit the Gulf Coast earlier this month turned Azad's life upside down, along with everyone else's. Only, in the case of immigrant students like Azad, especially those from predominantly Muslim countries like his, many are wondering whether to seek help from federal agencies, or just lie low and continue banking on the uncertain help of friends and acquaintances.

"The fear they are experiencing is understandable," Artesia, Calif.,-based South Asian Network's executive director Hamid Khan told India-West. "It's because of how South Asians, and particularly how Muslim students have been demonized" in the wake of 9/11. "Students with Muslim names face a higher degree of scrutiny. That's why even in times of need they are afraid to reach out so that they don't show up on the radar screen."

This is when you often hear the oversimplified advice, "well if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear."  That advice doesn't mean much to these students who, because of the fear of getting caught in the system, would rather keep their heads down even if it means enduring hardship.  The U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement office announced last week that it was temporarily lifting the restriction that binds a student visa holder to a particular institution.

Immigrant students' fears could have been reinforced recently after the Department of Homeland Security announced that immigrants have no immunity from deportation when providing information required to receive federal aid.

Suhaila, a doctoral student at Tulane University, who last week was accepted at Columbia University to complete her program in public health, said she didn't want her last name to be used in this story because she wanted to be cautious "because you never know."

"Immigration people say a lot of things, but we can't believe them," [another student] Waheed said. "Students are worried about losing their status if they don't stay enrolled in Tulane."

South Asian student enrollment at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge has shot up in the last few days. At least 40 Indian students from the University of New Orleans and Tulane have transferred to LSU, said Prof. Krishna Agnihotri, a teacher at Southern University College of Business and a founding member of the Hindu American Community Katrina Relief Organization. The group last week donated microwaves, blenders, mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows and bedsheets to the newly enrolled Indian American students, Agnihotri said.

If any students in this situation are reading this they can contact the South Asian Network at 562-403-0488 for advice and help.