Public Charge rule threatens Indian immigrants’ American dream
continUed from p1 American Dream’ t a g l i n e ge t s 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 Di- rector 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 noncitizens 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 noncitizen parent,” says MPI, adding, “nine out of 10 of these children are naturalborn 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.
After a lapse of two years, the politics of liquor is brewing once again in Kerala. If it was the infamous “bar bribery” case which cost the Congress-led United Democratic Front government dearly in the 2016 Assembly elections, apparent dilution of its liquor policy has now hit the ruling Left Front government in the state. If in 2016 it was a case of arbitrary closure of over 700 bars in the state, now it is all about making more liquor in the state aimed at selfsufficiency. The Left Front in its 2016 election manifesto, while insisting that it was against any ban on liquor sale, had promised to reopen all bars, but reduce availability of liquor in the state, known for its legions of worshippers of Bacchus. And the CPM-led Left Front swept the elections on that wave of hope, trashing all resistance from the church and women. The Congress may have got a majority of women’s votes, but CPM won the elections and soon opened all the bars, even circumventing rules that prohibit the sale of liquor Last fortnight, judgement after judgement was pronounced by the Supreme Court on many important and sensitive cases that were hanging fire for quite some time. In these very columns, The Sunday Guardian had run reports on how lobbies were burning their midnight oil to thwart or twist the process of justice in extremely sensitive cases (Efforts multiply to delay Ram Mandir verdict indefinitely, 21 July 2018). This newspaper had also expressed its hope that the incumbent Chief Justice of India, Dr Dipak Misra would be able to author landmark verdicts on so many cases of national and social import within a short time he is left with before he hangs his boots (16 days left for CJI Misra to create judicial history, 9 September 2018). And yes, those expectations have come out true and Justice Misra has finally pulled it off to create a judicial history of sorts.
Among the slew of verdicts various Benches headed by Justice Misra have delivered in the last two weeks, the three most significant ones are on Ayodhya, Aadhaar and Bhima-Koregaon cases. Delivering the long reserved judgement in the all- important case of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque title suit, the threejudge Bench of Justices Mis-