Will hundreds of thousands of Indians living in the US and their children born there to be deported back to India forcefully and mercilessly? Will their American Dream come to an end brutally and abruptly? And will it happen despite “Howdy Modi” and “Abki Baar, Trump Sarkaar” rhetoric?
Immediately after taking oath as the 47th US President, Donald Trump announced a flurry of executive orders, including the one that ends citizenship by birth. In his inaugural address to the nation, the US President declared a national emergency on the southern border and announced that the right to get US citizens for everyone would end.
Donald Trump Signs Executive Orders
Now, children born on the US soil get citizenship irrespective of the citizenship status of their parents. This allows the non-immigrant foreigners, living on visas like the H 1 B visa, to keep their children along with them.
Under the executive order signed by Donald Trump, these children will not get the citizenship automatically, they may be deported. Worse, their parents living in the US legally too would be deported on the ground that the US administration does not want to split the family. So, parents along with their children may be thrown out of the country.
Also Read: Donald Trump Inauguration: Can India Leverage US, Quad To Counter China?
Earlier, Donald Trump said, “I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”
No US Citizenship At Birth
As the US Constitution allows citizenship by birth, Trump administration will have to amend the it and it is not only cumbersome and difficult technically, it is also impossible poltically.
The US Constitution can be ammended by only by two-third of the members present an voting in bothe houses, Senate and the House of Representatives. Besides it should be ratified by at least three-fourths of the states.
Can Trump Administration Amend US Constitution?
The Republicans have 53 and the Democrats 47 members in the Senate, while the House of Representatives has 220 Republican and 215 Democrat members.
It would be extremely difficult for the Republicans to get the Constitutional Amendement Bills approved in any of the two houses.
Besides, 27 states have Republican governors, while 23 have Democrats. The Donald Trump administration will find it extremely difficult to get the constitutional amendment bills be ratified by three- fourths, or 36 states.
This executive order can be challenged in the court.
However, analysts believe, Donald Trump can order the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration to not process citizen’s applications for passports or Social Security numbers if they cannot prove that the their parents were lawfully living in the U.S. when the citizens were born.
En-Masse Arrest Of Indians?
This may allow and federal security agencies to arrest en-masse the immigrants living in the U.S. Their workplaces and residences may be raided, they may be detained and deported.
There is a huge backlog of applications for citizenship or the right to work in the US (green card). The immigrants thus arrested have the right to move the court; however, it is cumbersome and expensive, and most people with blue-collar jobs may be vulnerable.
To make things worse, Donald Trump also declared his intention to implement the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally.
The president is well within his rights to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, 1798. It allows a president to detain and deport noncitizen males during times of war.
Analysts believe these executive orders have been signed to crack down on illegal Mexicans, living near the US border and exploiting all means to somehow sneak into the US.
Millions Of Indians May Be Targeted
However, Indians will not be spared. According to a rough estimate, Indians constitute about 5.4 million or 1.5% of the total US population. About 34% or one-third of them are the US-born citizens, rest are immigrants.
Hundreds of thousands of people of Indian origin live there on a green card or work permit and have their applications for citizenship pending with the authorities. They have children born there.
According to the recent executive orders signed by the US President, the US-born children of these people will not get citizenship automatically. They may be deported. Their parents may also be deported along with them as the Trump administration does not want to split the family.
Changes In H-1B Visa Provisions
However, the woes of the Indians living in the US are much more complicated than they appear with the recent changes made to the H1 B Visa provisions.
According to the changes made by the Joe Biden Administration coming into effect on January 17, the US companies petitioning for the H-1B visas, must now show the availability of a legitimate “speciality job”.
Besides, the US Department of Homeland Security has modified the definition of “specialised work”.
It has added the requirement of maintaining a “direct relationship to the degree” as a “logical relationship”.
Consequently, a necessary logical connection between the applicant’s degree and the job responsibilities has been added.
The US firms may find it difficult to petition for the H1 B Visa for Indian professionals.
The problem may get much more complicated with the recent executive orders signed by Donald Trump. Now, they may find it difficult to get the H 1 B Visa in the first place. Secondly, even if they get the visa, their children may not automatically get citizenship. They and their children may be deported back to India.
