Air India bans 19 passengers from flying to the US

I read an interesting article on HuffingtonPost.in about Air India banning 19 passengers that were flying to the United States.  My first thought was perhaps something nefarious was going on, but upon reading the article, it appears nothing TOTALLY out of the ordinary.

It turns out that these 19 Indians were students who were on a student visa and planning on attending one of two universities in California – Silicon Valley University and Northwestern Polytechnic.  According to Air India, a group of students traveling earlier to one of these two universities was denied entry to the US and deported as soon as they arrived.

“In the past, we have witnessed that students who secured admission in those institutions have been deported to India as soon as they land there. To avoid embarrassment to them and save their money, we prevented them from boarding the flight,” the official said today.

On the other hand, according to the Contra Costa Times, Silicon Valley University says that there is nothing wrong with their universities, they have NOT been “blacklisted” by anyone in the US government, and that some students on the earlier flights did clear immigration (while 14 others were sent home)