President Donald Trump’s declared war on illegal immigrants has put millions of Indians at risk of deportation, as officials conduct sweeps across the country, forcing those without proper papers into the shadows.
The war has already claimed its first victim. Ironically a legal resident and an engineer Srinivas Kuchibothla was shot and killed by a white man shouting “Get out of my country” in a bar in Kansas.
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Immigrants Fraught With Deportation Risk
The hysteria against immigrants – legal or illegal – is palpable at least in certain parts of the country and doesn’t augur well for the Indian American community as a whole.
The under-the-radar existence of an estimated 5,00,000 illegal Indians may not be a well-known or readily acknowledged fact, but the community in America is not only about successful millionaires and scientists, computer giants and doctors.
Terrified about being whisked away without due process of law, many undocumented Indians are frantically contacting lawyers and NGOs to seek advice and solace.
There are thousands who have either overstayed their tourist and student visas or crossed the border with the help of smugglers to work in low-wage jobs and exist on the fringes. They are weighing the prospect of deportation.
Is Trump Govt Jumping the Gun on Criminality?
US President Donald Trump had promised during his campaign to clean the country of illegal immigrants and this week he ordered stepped-up enforcement of existing laws and widening of categories, under which people can be picked up.
Lakshmi Sridaran, national director for policy and advocacy for South Asian Americans Leading Together or SAALT, says the Trump administration is “very carefully treading the boundaries of law.” The new guidelines would allow those charged with a crime but not convicted to be deported. “They are assuming criminality and abusing the system.”
According to the Pew Research Center, India was the fourth largest source of illegal immigrants in 2014, a 130 percent increase from 2009. The top three are Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Sridaran says that the rise is due to multiple factors, both economic and political. Many Sikhs have walked over from Mexico over the years and asked for political asylum while other Indians are filling the demand for low-wage labour in factories in southern US.
Lots of industries rely on undocumented workers for cheap labour. There are push and pull factors, but that part of the conversation is not happening.Lakshmi Sridaran, National Director, South Asian Americans Leading Together
Draconian Orders Result in Panic
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has given agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) full authority to enforce the existing laws and wide authority to interpret them.
Under the new enforcement orders, the Department of Homeland Security will no longer make exemptions for categories of illegal immigrants seen as lesser risks. The first targets will be those with criminal records and those suspected in a crime, including minor offences such as traffic violations.
Immigration officers can arrest anyone if they have “probable cause” to suspect they are in violation of immigration laws. Reports say enforcement agents are staking out misdemeanour courts in New York, looking for potential illegal immigrants. A broken taillight can actually lead to deportation for an illegal immigrant.
Most are staying indoors and asking their neighbours to get them groceries. Stories are pouring in from across the country about the fact that fear has taken over the immigrant community.
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Rise in Hate Crimes in Trump Era
A general atmosphere of hatred has been building since last year in parts of the United States against all non-white immigrants and Muslims in particular. Jewish community centres and cemeteries have also been vandalised and desecrated in recent days.
Statistics prove what anecdotal evidence suggest. The Southern Poverty Law Center, the country’s premier monitoring organisation for hate crimes, says the radical right was energised by Trump’s candidacy. The number of hate groups rose to 917 in 2016 – up from 892 the year before – becoming the most hate-filled year since 2001 when the attacks on the World Trade Center took place.
Mark Potok, editor of SPLC’s annual hate index, called 2016 an unprecedented year.
The country saw a resurgence of white nationalism that imperils the racial progress we’ve made, along with the rise of a president whose policies reflect the values of white nationalists.Mark Potok, Editor, SPLC Annual Hate Index
In the first 10 days after Trump’s victory, 867 bias-related cases were documented.
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Parallels With Modi’s Victory in 2014
In a survey of teachers, 80 percent said their students, particularly immigrants, were anxious and afraid. Numerous teachers reported the use of slurs, derogatory language and extremist symbols in their classrooms.
Some may see parallels from 2014 in India, when ultra-nationalist forces targeted the Muslim community after Narendra Modi’s election victory. A similar sense of putting minorities in their place prevails in parts of the US, especially in the mid-west, resentment is higher because of the loss of manufacturing jobs.
(The writer is a senior Washington-based journalist. She can be reached @seemasirohi. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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