Successful Indian Americans in Business and Tech Must Speak Up Against Trump’s Draconian Immigration Measures

The Reels of Indian immigrants in chains getting deported to India in a U.S. military plane was indeed a spectacle. It was orchestrated as intended by the newly elected President. A promise to his voter base, well kept. The optics to the public, well displayed. The otherization of immigrants and establishing them as criminals, underscored emphatically. Does this symbolize a new era for the U.S. immigration policy? Would it impact Indians in the U.S?

Immigration has become a sensitive political issue because Trump and the Republicans resort to it as the easiest strategy to instigate a culture war and otherization of people to win elections. Deportation of illegal migrants is not new in the U.S. (The Vast majority of undocumented migrants enter the U.S. and claim asylum because of persecution or violence in their home countries. As per U.S. law, they are granted a court hearing to validate their asylum claim. Because the court hearing can only be scheduled several years later, due to the extremely large number of cases, asylum seekers are released and are given temporary work permits. Those who are denied asylum by the courts, a very large number annually, are deported.) The Biden administration has deported the highest number of immigrants compared to Trump’s first term. However, the optics are very important for Trump. Hence, the seismic shift from the regular deportation process in civil planes to the more expensive military aircraft with the cinematic addition of shackles and chains to establish to his voter base that it is Trump alone who can tackle the unaddressed immigrant issue.  

Dehumanization of any human being would contradict the beliefs of the Christian base that he is trying to appease. However, the theatrics are made to be fully justified in people’s minds by the right-wing media by constantly hammering the narrative that immigrants are hardcore criminals who need to be eliminated from our society. They cherry-pick a few outlier cases and magnify them continuously to reinforce the anti-immigrant sentiment. Once a perception is established that all undocumented immigrants are criminals, it is difficult for an average American to differentiate between who is legal and who is not. Therefore, the next four years are going to be hard for all immigrants, regardless of whether they are legal or undocumented.

If you turn the clocks back to a century, the first wave of Indian immigrants reached the U.S. back in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Around World War I in 1917, under the pretext of national security, the U.S. had introduced an immigration policy called Asiatic Barred Zone, which barred Indians from immigrating to the U.S. Indians had to wait for a couple of decades until 1946 for The Luce Celler Act, which allowed a quota of 100 Indians per year. It is only after 1965 when the quota system was relaxed by the Immigration and Nationality Act that a continuous flow of Indian immigrants to the U.S. became a norm.

Today, the U.S. has 4.8 million Indians, making them the second largest single racial block in the country. Indian immigrants are to be found in the highest echelons in the corporate world. The tech industry is run by Indian immigrants in the sophisticated Silicon Valley as well as in the rural farmlands. The citizenship and immigrant status data show that more than 70% of the U.S. H1B work visas (300,000+ visas) are issued to Indians. However, based on the quota systems applied to each country, it is almost impossible for an Indian H1B visa holder to become a citizen or permanent resident owing to the long wait period and application backlogs in the immigration system. The highly skilled Indian immigrants who work in the fields of scientific research, technology, medical science, and caregiving are the backbone enabling the futuristic progress of the U.S. Yet, they are not given the basic guarantees and rights to become permanent residents or citizens to enjoy a secure life with dignity. Their life is filled with angst and uncertainty about their future. The only silver lining in their life is that their children, born in the U.S., would become American citizens.

Around World War I in 1917, under the pretext of national security, the U.S. had introduced an immigration policy called Asiatic Barred Zone, which barred Indians from immigrating to the U.S. 

Unfortunately, on the first day of his presidency, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate birthright citizenship, which means a person cannot become a citizen merely because one is born in the U.S. If the birthright citizenship is revoked, many Indian American children will become “undocumented aliens” by default because which legal category would they fall under in the U.S., if their citizenship based on their birth gets revoked? While courts could stall the executive order, this has accentuated the misery of Indian immigrant families.

Another little-known fact is that Indian immigrants are the second largest undocumented population in the U.S. after Latinos. The undocumented Indian immigrants work in restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, and homes for caregiving. While small businesses, including Indian business owners, exploit the services of these undocumented aliens and profit from their existence, they do not show any qualms in joining the chorus against illegal immigrants and deportations. While the deportation spectacle has unraveled the ‘model minority’ myth of Indian immigrants, the question remains why many Indians take dangerous paths to immigrate to the U.S. when India is claiming a shiny future for its citizens. This is a policy question that needs to be redirected to the Indian government about job guarantees and quality of life standards for Indian citizens. It is quite disappointing that the Indian government did not challenge the dehumanization of Indian citizens who were deported to India in deplorable conditions.

Most Indian Americans, regardless of their legal status, would have heard in one form or the other the racially discriminating phrases like “Why can’t you go back to your country,” or “curry smell,” or “the Dot (Bindi) community” at one point or the other. Trump’s zealot-like approach to establish his leadership and legacy by playing to his gallery of white Christian voter base, aiming to build a sanitized America with pure white blood and Victorian Christian values, will make the lives of Indian immigrants more vulnerable. They are already in a state of uncertainty with their employment visas without any guarantees of citizenship or permanent residency rights. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are given a certain quota system by the Trump administration to detain immigrants. ICE agents are under pressure to increase the number of detentions per day, whereby due processes are getting highly compromised based on the newspaper reports reporting many erratic detention cases of legal immigrants. This would make the Brown communities like Indian immigrants highly vulnerable at this time.

There have been some minimal efforts in the past to present congressional bills to eliminate application backlogs that affect Indian immigrants’ plight in the U.S.  However, there has not been much proactive mobilization around it to advocate and advance the rights of Indians in the U.S.  A good majority of Indian American citizens prefer not to indulge in civic engagement and politics. They perceive themselves as economic migrants rather than full-fledged citizens who should take an active role in the country’s decision-making processes. Therefore, lobby groups and legislative advocacy groups around the rights of Indian immigrants hardly exist. Despite being the largest racial group, the South Asian advocacy efforts tend to stay in the shadows behind the larger Asian groups rather than taking an assertive leadership stance to uphold the rights of the Indian community.

The U.S. immigration policy will wax and wane towards Indian immigrants under the Trump administration in the next four years. Therefore, it is important for the Indian American professionals in the medical field, scientific research, technology, and caregiving who are transitioning the U.S. towards its futuristic progress to speak up for their contributions in concrete terms. Indian immigrants should not have to be begging for mercy for their rightfully deserved life with dignity through a guaranteed residential status in the U.S. Indian immigrants need to mobilize, advocate and speak to the power to stop the inconsistent immigration policies that diminish the dignified existence of Indian immigrants who are major economic contributors accentuating the country’s progress. 

It is time for the Indian corporate tycoons and iconic management gurus who take safer havens to show some moral courage and uphold the rights of the employees who give them the thrones they sit on and bring profits to the companies through their Indian sweat and intellect. It is time for the elected officials of Indian origin to stand up unapologetically for the rights of Indian immigrants and hold the administration responsible for their erratic immigration policies, and enforce what is long overdue to all Indian immigrants in the U.S.  The reality remains that only the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

---

Litcy Kurisinkal, a Research Consultant focusing on human rights, labor rights and political advocacy, is a Public Policy Graduate from Harvard Kennedy School.