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Exactly three months after the World Trade Center (WTC) tragedy, a New York Times and CBS News Poll have disclosed an interesting finding. The nationwide survey has reported that 77 per cent of the 1,052 people polled believed it was good that now the government can hold non-citizens for up to seven days without charging them. Or that it can even detain them indefinitely if it thought the person was a threat to national security.

The report coincides with the race riots report in the United Kingdom that logs the racial divide besetting the nation. Though different in context, both indicate the challenge faced by the South Asian community in both countries.

WEAR IT: The flag is more than a symbol of allegiance. It is also a badge of safety

In the immediate aftermath of the WTC attacks, the South Asian community in the US had to face a barrage of racial profiling-685 incidents in the first week alone. As an immediate rearguard action, US flags became a part and parcel of immigrant life. Whether it adorned the front windows, fluttered from roof tops or surfaced as tie-pins. The flag was more than a symbol of allegiance-it was a badge of safety.

Yashpaul Soi, vice president of the National Federation of Indian American Associations, says: "The biggest symbolic thing we did was to remind others that the Indian community too had lost members in the tragedy. Accordingly, we inserted an advertisement in The New York Times and covened an inter-faith prayer meeting on September 30. There was a large turnout and flags of both countries were flown."

IN THE DOCK: Asians demand the closing of INS jails as they protest racial profiling

"As an immigrant, your life has changed. The laws passed after September 11 have changed your rights." Sohail Mohammed, Immigration Attorney

While public backlash has abated, immigrants and foreigners now face a new adversary-an extremely aggressive state investigative apparatus. The laws of the land have been altered radically, which has empowered the Immigration Naturalisation Service (INS) like never before. In addition, the Justice Department has offered citizenship to entice stool pigeons. This includes setting aside visa and status irregularities to lure illegal immigrants to come forward with information about supposed terrorists. "The people who have the courage to make the right choice deserve to be welcomed as guests into our country and perhaps to one day become fellow citizens," said Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The initial target of the INS sweep has been students from eight countries: Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen-places regarded as having the greatest potential to harbour terrorists. Students from India too are feeling some racial profiling as some of them have been asked to resubmit their university admission papers.

In the nationwide crackdown since September 11, over 1,200 were arrested. Of this, Ashcroft revealed, 641 are still in custody for immigration law violations, and 20 of them are Indians. This includes Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, residents of Hyderabad, who were arrested from a train on September 12, when police discovered on them $5,600 in cash and box cutters similar to those used by the hijackers that attacked WTC. It is likely that both may not be found linked to the attacks, but may be charged with financial or immigration issues.

Organisations that want to defend accused foreigners were so frustrated by the lack of information that a group led by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit here recently to penetrate the secrecy. "Most aliens just happen to get caught in the net. They don't know anything at all," said James Zogby, of the Arab American Institute. "Visa violators and terror suspects are simply not the same thing."

Ever since, immigration attorneys have advised all foreigners, especially south Asians to keep their visas and passports with them all the time as the law requires. According to Sheela Murthy, a leading immigration attorney, one of her clients was detained by the authorities at the airport when returning after a thanksgiving weekend with friends in Spain. The officials discovered some visiting cards on him, which suggested employment other than what was defined in his H-1 visa. The person was given the option of being taken into INS custody or be deported. He is now back in India and has engaged Murthy to fight for his return to the US.

Murthy offers a word of caution: "Don't volunteer more information than what is required. It can be misused. In this case, the person mentioned he does photography as a hobby while he was a H-1 visa holder as a software programmer. The INS argued that he was holding two jobs and this was a violation of norms."

"Life will never be the same again," says Sohail Mohammed, an immigration attorney. "As an immigrant, your life has changed. The laws passed after 9/11 have changed your rights."

Yet people try to cling to normalcy. For Jyoti Kumar Sachdev, the last three months have been a roller-coaster. An Indian immigrant who arrived in 1991, Sachdev who doubles up as a paramedic and a limousine driver volunteered to help on 9/11. The buildings came down just after he managed to get a five-month pregnant woman to safety.

"Initially, it was bad. They would check my ID twice and thrice. I immediately started wearing a tie with the US colours and also flew a US flag on my limousine. It drew a good response from the police and I have retained it since. I do it to make others comfortable, not to prove my loyalty," he says. Now, he has legitimate cause to do so. Three days ago, Sachdev was granted US citizenship.

Up in North-East Maine, Jagdeep Singh or JD to friends has the distinction of being the only turbaned Sikh in the Portland area, which has 13,000 foreigners in a city of 100,000. While Singh was spared racial profiling in Maine, he had misadventures on his visits to Boston, New York and Atlanta, shortly after the wtc blasts. "Now, it is much better. We feel as American as anyone else, after all we are citizens," says Singh, who has been running an Indian restauraunt in Portland for the last 13 years.

The South Asian community is apprehensive about the changed environment and many believe they are better off staying in traditional desi neighbourhoods. The Asian immigrant population is facing up to a new challenge-one more pernicious than the "dot-busters" of the 1980s. This time, it looks like insecurity is being boosted by the state.