Former UF graduate student Robin Garg was sentenced to 180 days in jail for groping dozens of women on campus and now deported to India

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In newly released videos, former UF graduate student Robin Garg, who was sentenced to 180 days in jail for groping dozens of women on campus, tells police he had no sexual intentions and that he was having second thoughts about his actions.

Garg was released from the Alachua County jail Wednesday. He was handed over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which could decide to deport him, though he has already promised to go home to India.

"I just don't like touching anyone; there was no intention of that," Garg tells University Police Department Detective Daymon Kizzar in the videos.


He said his main motivation was to surprise the women and that he liked watching their expressions.

"When I scared a girl, I enjoyed that," Garg says.

In each case, the ploy was the same: He would approach a woman on campus, tell her she had a bug on them and pretend to help remove it.
Watch the interrogation video:
The videos were filmed in UPD's interrogation room on the night of April 14, after Garg was arrested outside of Library West for groping a female student.

He admits to groping between 30 and 36 women but mentions even higher numbers at other points in the questioning.

He tells police the incidents all happened over a period of five days — from a Friday to a Tuesday, with a break on Sunday.

They occurred mainly near the core of campus, from the Reitz Union North Lawn to Little Hall.

Garg admits he was questioning himself the day he was caught.

"Today, like, I was realizing, I'm doing a wrong thing," Garg says in the video.

"I was just thinking that, like, what I'm doing? I'm here for studying. I should not do this," he says.

He says he was feeling sorry for what he had done but maintains he never hurt any of the women or took pictures of them, as one woman alleged.

He also says that he was polite.

"You can ask any of the girls," he says. "I have not done any mischievous. I have not done anything against them, you can ask; I was very polite."

In the videos, Garg appears to give conflicting answers about whether he touched the women, at first saying he backed off when the women told him not to touch them.

He says he mainly touched the women's backs, only groping the front of their bodies on a few occasions.

"There was two or three or four cases, like, I used to get frontside, or inside the pants, but sexually I didn't like that," he says.

Garg was sentenced to 180 days in jail on Aug. 8. He was given three years of probation and ordered to have no contact with UF, Santa Fe College or any of his victims.

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Microsoft's Ballmer on H1-B Visas, Immigration

The Detroit Free Press recently interviewed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who asked him why Microsoft in 2007 built a research and development facility in Canada--over the border in Vancouver--not that far from Microsoft's quarters in Redmond, Wash.

Why not build it in the United States? Ballmer's response:

While the Canadian R&D credit may have been a factor, it wasn't the deciding one, Ballmer said. That would be immigration policy...

"We opened the lab in Vancouver," Ballmer said, "because we were having trouble getting visas for the best and the brightest to come to Seattle. The Canadian government said, 'We're happy to have those people.' "

"It's a bit goofy," he said, "because for every person we hire to be an engineer, there's probably another four or five people who we employ at Microsoft. There's another set of people employed in the community in construction and housing and retail, a bunch of different industries."

In 2008, Microsoft employed more than 78,000 individuals. According to Fortune, Microsoft employs 47,645 in the United States and 30,920 in other countries. Microsoft has said publicly that less than 15 percent of its U.S. work force are H1-B visa holders--which would put the total number of visa holders in the 6,000 to 7,000 range.

The United States has a cap on visa holders at less than 15 percent, so Microsoft is maximizing its use of visas, but consistently lobbies the government for more. The claim? It just can't find enough talent in this country. Ballmer appears to be beating on that visa drum again in this DFP story. Again, from the article:

""I don't care whether they're American-born or Indian-born or Russian-born. I want to pay them to work in the U.S. That's why I'm trying to get 'em a visa.... I'm not trying to ship the job to India."

But Microsoft will locate the job in India, or Canada or wherever it can get the best talent.

Canada is well known for its generous R&D tax credit poilicies and the U.S. wavers on it frequently. From a Scitax Advisory Partners report entitled "North American Politicians Recognize R&D Tax Credits as a Useful Economic Fix":

The low priority afforded this issue is witnessed by the fact that Washington has let its Research & Experimentation ("R&E") tax credit expire no less than 13 times since it was originally enacted into law in 1981. In Canada - and most other countries with similar credits - R&D tax credits are fixed in legislation. But in the US, congress must vote on renewing the R&E tax credit every year. And frequently they vote against renewing it, which means technology companies can't really count on it.

Canada's R&D tax credits may be more significant than Ballmer wants the public and U.S. government to believe.

H-1B Visas and Unemployment: A Federal Case

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The U.S. government, at least the part that is fighting H-1B visa fraud, is looking to prove a point about the program: that fraud in H-1B visa program and the number of visa holders in U.S. tech jobs are putting current struggling American technology workers out of work.

Unemployment for the technology industry is up, just as every industry's numbers are up. But are companies going out of their way to replace Americans with H-1B workers? That's what the feds appear to be out to prove.

The company that sparked the debate, according to a Computerworld article, is New Jersey-based Vision Systems Group, which is accused of paying wages for H-1B visa holders working in New Jersey based on Iowa rates (since the company had an office there). Salaries for technology workers in those two states are very different, and so fraud has been charged and criminal arrests have taken place. The government also claims Vision only hired H-1B holders for IT positions.

Vision Systems isn't the only case of alleged fraud and abuse. Now, the feds are trying to broaden their argument by looking at IT unemployment as a whole and connecting the dots to the H-1B visa program.

From the Computerworld article:

The U.S. said it is "prepared to demonstrate to the court the manner in which the defendant's schemes, along with similar schemes by similar companies have substantially deprived U.S. citizens of employment." The government then points out that "in January of 2009, the total number of workers employed in the information technology occupation under the H-1B program substantially exceeded the 241,000 unemployed U.S. citizen workers within the same occupation."

The problem is that while there appears to be a strong case for fraud and abuse relating to the visa program, it is harder to substantiate the full impact on American workers and all the layoffs and unemployment occurring. The two are not dependent on each other. Layoffs would be happening regardless of whether there was an H-1B visa program or not.

As the Computerworld article points out, the "U.S. government's brief doesn't explain to what extent fraud is responsible for tech worker unemployment, or cite sources for its data."

That's an issue the courts will undoubtedly need to examine more closely.

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Low demand extends H1-B visa deadline

Low demand extends H1-B visa deadline Silicon Valley - San Jose Business Journal Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:07 AM PDT Federal immigration officials on Wednesday extended the deadline for H1-B visa requests as the recession appears to have weakened demand for skilled foreign workers.

Less people applying for H1-B visa Dayton Business Journal Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:21 AM PDT Only enough applicants to fill half of the allocated H1-B slots have applied for the foreign worker visa, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as reported by the San Jose Mercury News. (ORCL) (HPQ) (MSFT)

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Only 65,000 H1-B applications for H-1B visa jobs

Few takers for H-1B visa jobs rediff.com Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:42 PM PDT The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has received only half the 65,000 H1-B applications it requires to fill up the general quota category in the first five day after it began receiving applications April 1.

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White House has hired actor Kal Penn as a liaison between President Barack Obamas administration and arts groups

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Kumar to be Obama liaison
Charleston Daily Mail Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:21 PM PDT
WASHINGTON -- The White House has hired actor Kal Penn as a liaison between President Barack Obamas administration and arts groups.Penn had a recurring role on Foxs TV show "House" and has starred in several movies. He will join the staff as an a...

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Demand For H1-B Visas Falls

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Demand For H1-B Visas Falls NPR Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:41 PM PDT The demand for visas reserved for high-skilled tech workers had fallen this year. Immigration officials report that applications for the H1-B visa, usually oversubscribed within days of becoming available, have fallen short of the 85,000 reserved slots.

direct green card to PhD holders +US co to pull back jobs from India

US co to pull back jobs from India
rediff.com Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:35 PM PDT
Sallie Mae, a US-based company which gives loans to students, announced on Monday that it plans to move back as many as 2,000 overseas jobs, including those from India, even if it means an additional financial burden on the company because of higher labour expenses

Alien workers not giving up hope on better status Saipan Tribune Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:10 AM PDT United Workers Movement NMI president Rabby Syed said they are not giving up hope that long-term foreign workers, overstayers with unpaid wages, foreign parents with U.S. citizen children, and immediate relatives of U.S. and Freely Associated States citizens applying for green card will get an improved status under a federal immigration system. Tragedy hits family again in Starkey Road crash - roanoke.com Roanoke Times Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:53 PM PDT Rosa Cedillo has had her share of heartache, and is dealt some more. Kirian Cedillo Cedillo was newly pregnant, engaged to a man she loved and only a couple of months away from getting the green card she had long been coveting. The 21-year-old Honduran immigrant worked full time in the kitchen at Grace's Place, a Grandin Road pizzeria, and read English textbooks on her own at night. Green card to a healthier life China Daily Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:15 PM PDT Hu Guodong has two meals a day - breakfast and dinner - with possibly just a simple tea in between. He believes the big time gap is the best way to replenish energy and consume calories. Congress Bill seeks direct green card to PhD holders Express India Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:29 PM PDT In an effort to retain the best foreign talent in the country, a bill has been introduced in the US Congress, which if passed, would give direct "permanent residency" to overseas PhD students, including from India.

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No green card, no water for immigrants in Florida

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