Empty shops, empty promises for Coney Island Pakistanis. (Enemies of the State).

Nobody knows exactly how many Pakistanis have left New York in the last several months, but residents of Brooklyn's "Little Pakistan" on Coney Island Avenue talk of an exodus.

"Many shops have closed," says Ashgar Choudhri, a man who locals describe as the unofficial "mayor" of one of the largest concentrations of Pakistanis in the country. Sitting in his small accounting office and flanked by framed photo ops of himself with a range of local politicians, including former New York Governor and Mayor Mario Cuomo, Choudrhi talks of the demise of this vibrant community. He says the streets are quiet and that the 24-hour stores in the neighborhood have started closing at night.

A taxi service dispatcher who says he was the first Pakistani owner of a car service in New York agrees: "There was a time in the evening, when you walked down the street and it was full. Now it's empty."

Fueled by a steady influx of immigrants and a strong economy, the population of Pakistanis has grown steadily over the last 20 years in New York--and around the country. As of the 2000 Census, there were approximately 267,000 Pakistan-born U.S. citizens nationwide, Choudhri and other local leaders claim there are as many as 150,000 Pakistanis living in the New York metropolitan area alone. As in many other immigrant communities, some of this population growth has come without the blessing of the INS--a significant number of new arrivals have come into the country illegally via Canada or Mexico or remain here illegally, having overstayed their initial short term visas.

But since 9/11 and the onset of "special registration," the flow of new immigrants-- legal and illegal--has virtually stopped, and many of those who were "out of status" are now leaving the country to avoid arrest or deportation. The impact of these trends--coupled with the broader downturn of the U.S. economy--has been devastating for the insular community of Coney Island Avenue and for similar Pakistani communities across the U.S.

Downstairs, on the ground floor of Mr. Choudhri's office building, several men sit at desks in a one-stop office that offers insurance coverage, a money exchange, and a travel agency. These men say that a third of those without legal status are going back to Pakistan, another third are heading to Canada, and those "with the most nerve" are simply staying put and "hoping not to be caught." According to federal immigration literature, those who do not register forfeit any future chance of becoming legal immigrants and/or U.S. citizens.

For individuals who are "our of status" and who have been living in the country for years, the stakes are high. While Mr. Choudhri's downstairs neighbors chat, three such men come in to buy one-way tickets to Islamabad. Just outside, their late model Ford utility van is double parked and emblazoned with a sign advertising their ...