Indian immigrants in the U.S. has spiked from about 200,000 in the 1980s to more than 2 million today, as Indian American scientists and engineers fueled the American tech boom. India received more H-1B visas in the U.S. for its temporary high-skilled workers, about 70 percent, than any other country in 2014. And it is reported that as many as half million illegal residents are of Indian origin.
These and several millions of people living in the US illegally will be affected by the Indian Americans A new set of deportation priorities announced by the Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 20 will not immediately target undocumented youth who have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protection, but may affect as many as 450,000 Indian residents living in the U.S. without requisite immigration documents.
DHS Secretary John Kelly rolled out two memos that he said are in line with President Donald Trump’s Jan. 25 executive order on border security and immigration enforcement. The new directives greatly expand the definition of “criminal aliens” to include those who have entered or re-entered the U.S. illegally, committed visa fraud, received public benefits, or received a final order of removal. The memos also grant enforcement officials wide berth to determine as deportable someone who poses a risk to public safety or national security.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer clarified the memo in a Feb. 23 press briefing, noting that people who had overstayed a visa would be considered deportable. “We are a nation of laws, and we have to have a system of legal immigration that is respected,” he said. Previously, deportable criminal aliens were defined as those who had committed felony crimes.
The memos also hasten deportation procedures and allow Customs and Border Patrol to determine at the border whether an arriving alien is eligible for entry – including those who have asked for asylum – without a further hearing or review.
The directives also hasten the process of deportation for those currently awaiting a hearing on their application for asylum. At least 1,500 Indian nationals are being held at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities around the country – some for longer than two years – waiting for their asylum case to be heard.
President Barack Obama implemented the DACA initiative – also known as the DREAM Act – in 2012. More than 1.7 million undocumented youngsters are currently eligible for the program; about 750,000 are currently receiving relief from deportation, work authorization, and driver’s licenses under the provisions of the initiative.
About 17,000 Indian students are eligible for DACA, but only 3,608 have applied, according to statistics from the Migration Policy Institute. About 3,000 Indian students in California are eligible for DACA, noted the MPI.
Shortly after he was elected last year, Trump set out what immigration activists have labelled “draconian” policies for immigrants, both legal and undocumented. But in an interview with Time magazine last year, the president said he would “work something out” to help immigrants who were brought to the United States undocumented as children.
“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud,” Trump told the magazine. He did not offer details, but said: “They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.” Kelly’s memos make brief mention of DACA recipients, noting they are exempted from the new directives.
South Asian Americans Leading Together, a national South Asian advocacy organization, said in a press statement Feb. 22 that it “resolutely objects” to the new DHS memos. “We believe these memos further relegate South Asian and all immigrant communities to second-class citizenship, questioning our very place in the quintessential nation of immigrants,” stated Suman Raghunathan, executive director of SAALT.
“These policies massively expand and accelerate detentions and deportations, trample upon due process by in many cases removing the requirement for hearings and convictions prior to deportation, deputize local law enforcement to serve as immigration enforcement authorities, and increase the profiling and targeting of immigrant communities already under siege in the wake of recent and controversial executive orders released by this administration,” she said.
“The scale of the president’s anti-immigrant policies is extreme, and the new administration appears hell-bent on targeting and demonizing immigrant communities through orders that actively undermine safety and public trust in law enforcement,” said the Indian American community activist. “Short-circuiting due process is not a crackdown on crime, but a crackdown on rights and our very founding values as a nation, and these measures must be opposed by all communities of color.”
As rumors swirl over President Donald Trump’s Executive Actions on immigration, there’s trepidation among some legal residents from India in the United States. A prime concern: is it okay to travel overseas? What if there are new directives from the White House while on vacation? What if the ‘American Dream’ turns into an ‘American nightmare’, like it did for even Green Card holders from the seven Muslim-majority countries who were shunned at borders, barred from getting back to their home and normal life, targeted with a Travel Ban. Made to feel like social pariahs.