Missing Arkansas Teen Tanvi Marupally Found Safe in Tampa and Returned to Her Anguished Parents
- According to the police, Tanvi spent two months in a homeless shelter in Kansas City and later in an abandoned building in Tampa.
She is not a DREAMer, a child of parents who were here illegally. She was brought to the United States legally by her Indian parents. Her father is on a non-immigrant visa working in the tech sector. Yet, Tanvi Marupally, 14, was terrified that she’d have to return to India if her father lost his job, a possibility that loomed large as thousands of tech jobs have been eliminated lately. The layoffs mostly affected Indian tech workers, many of whom had to return to India after not finding alternate jobs within two months.
Appending the same fate befalling her father, a traumatized Tanvi went missing from her home in Conway, Arkansas on Jan. 17. She left for school that morning and never returned. After a 3-month long nationwide search, Tanvi was located safe in Tampa, Florida, according to Conway police.
On Wednesday, Tanvi was found following a tip from a Tampa resident who shared a tip through the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Conway police then informed Tampa Police Department whose officers followed the tip and found her at John F. Germany library. Tanvi’s parents were immediately notified, and she was ferried home by Arkansas police.
The police confirmed that Taniv had fled her home fearing the prospect of being sent back to India, which was always suspected to be the case.
On Thursday afternoon, the police held a briefing where Tanvi’s nearly three-month saga was revealed. The Conway PD Chief William Tapley said that on Jan. 17 she left home and aimlessly started walking by the railway tracks. After walking for several miles, she boarded a train and arrived in Kansas City where she checked into a homeless shelter under a false identity. Tanvi spent two months at the shelter and on a whim, she left Kansas City and headed to Tampa, Florida, on a bus. She chose Tampa randomly, the officer said. Amazing as it may seem, in Tampa, Tanvi lived in an abandoned building and frequented a nearby library where she undertook a job search on Craig’s List.
The police confirmed that Taniv had fled her home fearing the prospect of being sent back to India, which was always suspected to be the case.
After she went missing, her parents said that they believe she may have run away due to her family’s “tenuous immigration status.” Father Pavan Roy Marupally told the local media that he works in tech and faces the possibility of being laid off. Losing his job would cost him his work visa. If that should happen, the family would be given ten days to leave the country, he told the news outlet. When his wife lost her job, she had to return to India alone and reapply for a visa as his dependent. “It took a year before she could return to be with her family.”
The father said, “the prospect of being ripped from her home in the U.S. was too much for their daughter. She would often visit a chapel near her home and its surrounding fields to escape life’s worries.”
First of all, you have written the lead in an insensitive and callous manner. No human is illegal. If you’re going to discuss these issues and want to gain respect, then at least show some respect. People who do not have the proper documentation in the United States have a name: undocumented workers. But that is another story.
That said, my heart goes out to this young woman. Sadly, in a country and nation built upon white supremacy and operating on systemic racism, we are at the mercy of the powers that be. Most of the “powers that be” are white people. So, I suggest that everyone who is on an a temporary work visa should always have a Plan B. When you’re not in your country of citizenship, you can be kicked out at any time, period. Given that, her parents should prepare the young lady for this sad reality and have her come up with a plan should that happen.
On the other side, those who lobby for H1-B visas should also look at the human toll these policies yield.
For a young lady who lived in homeless shelters away from her family, when she was likely used to living in relative comfort says a lot about why she fears returning to India.
I hope it works out for her. I’d love to take her in as a foster mom if she does have to go to India.