US President Donald Trump’s “dislike for immigrants” took an ugly turn last Saturday for many Green Card seekers, most of whom belong to the fastest growing ethnic race—Indian Americans. The proposed “public charge” rule threatens to put hurdles before a million-plus immigrant population in line for American citizenship.
Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security has proposed a rule that would deny Green Cards and visas to immigrants if they have received government benefits in the past or are likely to receive one in the future. The move threatens to hit hard immigrants from South Asian countries, particularly India, as nearly 638,000 Green Card applications of Indian immigrants have piled up, as on April 2018. “This may have gone up by another 50,000 or more by now,” says a top immigration attorney, Aparna Dave, hinting the number of “citizenship applications from Indian Americans and South Asians is set to go down.”
Over 10% of Green Card recipients in FY 2016 were from South Asian countries. In 2014, immigrants in this country earned $1.3 trillion and paid more than $223 billion in federal taxes, while paying another $105 billion in combined state and local taxes.
Interestingly, the rule known as “public charge” began in the 1800s as a way for the US to deny entry to immigrants, who were likely to become a drain on the economy.
Washington DC-based Migration Policy Institute’s (MPI) Senior Fellow, Mark Greenberg told The Sunday Guardian that the whole “public charge” issue “is more than a mere Green Card issue”. Greenberg, along with his two colleagues—MPI’s former President Michael Fix and Senior Policy Analyst Jeanne Batalova—has authored a latest report titled, “Chilling Effects: The Expected Public Charge Rule and Its Impact on Legal Immigrant Families’ Public Benefits Use”. Citing the report, he says: “In addition to Green Card seekers, there’s a whole lot in line for applications for admissions; extending or adjusting their status categories like change of non-immigrant status and also extension of their stay status…hard times ahead.”
According to US administration’s own figures, nearly 382,000 get Green Cards every year and of these nearly 65,000 are from India. “The whole ‘immigrants’ Big American Dream’ tag line gets blurred,” feels Dave. “Many Indian Americans have raised families and have made their plans, bought properties and have got their children studying in US institutions…hardships await those who will be put on the ‘public charge’ grind and termed a visa violator for accepting any public benefit and misusing the immigrant status.”
Supporting Dave’s fears, Greenberg adds: “The current Trump administration has taken a number of steps to move away from welcoming immigrants…the ‘public charge’ may be one more, even worse.”
The proposed “public charge” has invited sharp criticism from community leaders and immigration councils in the US.
Frank Islam, a leading entrepreneur, philanthropist and prominent face of the Indian American community, says: “No country has benefited more from the H-1B visa program than India. In the past quarter century, the Indian American population has more than doubled thanks to a huge influx of Indian nationals to this country through H-1B visas. However, the US will be an even bigger loser. The contributions of H-1B visa holders to the US economy, especially in the fields of information technology and healthcare, are well-documented.”
Islam says that in fact, in the IT field, the ability of American companies to hire talents from abroad in such abundance is one of the reasons the US has been able to remain far ahead of other countries. They have and continue to bring broad economic benefits and they also bring young workforce as the American population is greying. “They contribute immensely to the US and our economy. They create new companies and they are innovative. To me it does not make any sense to send back students to India because we educate them and train them and then we ought to keep them,” says Islam, slamming Trump.
“Trump’s war against H-1B is part of his overall crusade against hard working immigrants. The ‘Buy American Hire Americans’ executive order passed last year has been used to tighten H-1B rules and discourage employers from hiring workers from abroad. While I am in favour of plugging loopholes to stop the abuse of H-1B visas, the administration is shooting itself in the foot by trying to roll back the visa program. It is the equivalent of killing the duck that lays golden eggs,” Islam said, hinting at the Indian American community.
Someone like Suman Raghunathan, Executive Director of the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) said, “This policy is about who this administration considers a desirable immigrant. It is designed to instil fear in immigrant communities of colour and relegate the non-citizens and their families to second-class status.”
The growing resentment within the community has also compelled South Asian-dominated constituency representatives to speak against the move. Congressman Bobby Scott from Virginia said, this proposal is cruel, counterproductive and in violation of the basic principles that make America an example for the world.
There is more to this fear, points out the MPI report. “An estimated 3.8 million Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders and 10.3 million Hispanics live in families in which at least one member has used one of these government services. And there are 10.5 million children in the US in families receiving public benefits who have at least one non-citizen parent,” says MPI, adding, “nine out of 10 of these children are natural-born citizens, and their families could be torn apart if a parent is considered a public charge and no longer able to stay in the country.”
Beth Werlin, Executive Director of American Immigration Council summed it up aptly: “The Trump administration’s proposed changes signal an intent to abandon the basic principle that America is a land of opportunity for people, rich and poor. These proposals would break that fundamental promise.”
Maneesh Pandey is Senior Executive Editor with ITV Network and currently a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Delaware State University, USA.