seenoevil
My father was a naval architect in what was then West Germany, which is where I was born. But the West German immigration system was not hospitable to immigrants—not even to those with professional skills, such as my dad. So in 1971, he applied for a Green Card to immigrate to the United States. He arrived here a few months later, and was soon joined by my mother and me, then a toddler.
My dad initially lived with our relative Pushpa Singh, who had immigrated from India a few years before, along with her engineer husband. After she became a U.S. citizen, she sponsored a number of her brothers and sisters. Today, her siblings and their families are leading productive lives, with three of them running an institution for children with special needs.
If policies now favored by President Donald Trump had been in place, these members of my family would likely not be here. Neither would possibly the Indian Americans who serve him in top positions.
Indian Americans are probably the best-represented minority group in the Trump Administration. The most prominent is Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who is a full-fledged cabinet member as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Ajit Pai heads the Federal Communications Commission, where he’s led the push to end net neutrality. Raj Shah, the principal deputy White House press secretary, has taken over some press conference duties from his boss, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Seema Verma is in charge of Medicare and Medicaid. And Dimple Shah is deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They are just the most high-profile names.
If policies now favored by President Donald Trump had been in place, these members of my family would likely not be here. Neither would possibly the Indian Americans who serve him in top positions.
These individuals are in the United States because their parents moved here as professionals—one of the immigrant categories that Trump is attempting to restrict. This is just one of the ways his administration is turning up the heat on immigrants from India.
“Taken together, all of Trump’s moves on immigration have echoes from America of the 1920s and [are] a sustained effort to take a meat cleaver to the world created by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965,” states FirstPost, an Indian web publication.
Even though Trump’s immigration policies are in a state of flux, the general thrust is perceptible.
“The problem with Trump,” says Drew University Assistant Professor Sangay Mishra in an interview, “is that on different days, he utters very different things, but the baseline is to cut immigration across the board.” Mishra is the author of Desis Divided: The Political Lives of South Asian Americans. (Desis is a colloquial term for Indian Americans and South Asian Americans.)
One of Trump’s anti-immigrant obsessions has been to limit the family reunification immigration program—or what Trump calls “chain migration”—to spouses and minor children. (Trump has falsely alleged that New York City terrorism suspect Sayfullo Saipov of Uzbekistan brought two dozen relatives to the United States.) His administration is also backing a Senate bill called the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act, which will drastically revamp and reduce immigration, including family reunification.
“Things are going to change on this front,” Huma Ahsan, an immigration attorney, tells me. “And once it happens, it’ll be quick.”
The Trump team is also looking to end visa extensions for workers on the road to permanent residency, derail work permits for some spouses, and delay the processing of other visa petitions. There is even talk of making Green Card applicants go back to their home country while their applications are being processed, a move that would cause massive displacement. And as many as 5,500 Indians and 2,800 Pakistanis stand to lose temporary protections for “Dreamers,” while 17,000 other Indians “face the risk of deportation,” according to South Asian Americans Leading Together, a New York-based advocacy group.
Taken together, Ahsan says, these developments have caused palpable anxiety in the Indian American community. As she puts it, “Every time he tweets or makes an announcement, people think: ‘What does this mean? Are we next?’ ”
But the response to all this from Nikki Haley and other Indian Americans who hold key positions in the Trump Administration has been. . . crickets. She did not reply to a request for comment from The Progressive; neither did Ajit Pai, Raj Shah, Seema Verma, or Dimple Shah.
Mishra says he is unaware of any Indian American member of the Trump Administration publicly defending immigrants’ rights.
The Indian American community is solidly Democratic. In the last three presidential elections, roughly three-fourths of Indian Americans voted for Democrats. Meanwhile, Mishra says, “The GOP has moved to an evangelical, white framework. Brown people are perceived as outsiders.”
So how, then, did so many Indian Americans end up in the Trump Administration?
Mishra sees a split between the Indian American elite and the rest of the population. It is from this disjuncture that Indian American Republicans arise.
Haley and former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal are in a category of their own. To get accepted in the Republican Party, both have altered their names, religious beliefs, and politics to suit their political home. (See my article, “Extreme Makeover, GOP Style,” in The Progressive, October 2010.)
But there is a second GOP category in which people like Verma and Pai fit. They are technocratic policy wonks with a conservative bent. The Trump Administration has brought a number of them to the fore, even in the absence of any overt mobilization.
“Such individuals are primed for that sort of politics,” Mishra says. “They are into the model minority, hard work-type of framework. They don’t need the community’s support or engagement with minority politics.”
And they’re enjoying the perches and perks of power.
“It’s their proximity to whiteness that’s important to them,” says activist Anirvan Chatterjee. “They’re non-Muslim and non-Sikh and so are not dangerous, they feel.”
This leads to another reason for support of Trump: shared animosity toward Muslims. The most prominent example of this is Trump megafunder Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar and his Republican Hindu Coalition. Kumar actually got Trump to record a campaign ad partially in Hindi to appeal to Indian Americans.
Indian American activists have launched an online campaign called the #DesiWallOfShame. Its purpose is to call out Trump’s Indian American appointees for their acquiescence with his immigration policies. “DIMPLE SHAH IS ENDANGERING THE LIVES OF 700,000 DREAMERS,” reads one of the posted banners. “RAJ SHAH DEFENDED TRUMP’S ‘SH*THOLE’ RANT TO WHITE HOUSE PRESS,” reads another.
Deepa Iyer, the former executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together and author of We Too Sing America, is among the activists behind this campaign. “We had a troubling feeling that desi people in high-appointed positions were doing the bidding of the administration and going against the interests of all communities of color,” she tells me. “They simply don’t see how the policies they’re supporting are affecting people of color.”
There are a number of factors ensuring good relations between the Trump Administration and the current ruling coalition in India. The President has extensive business dealings there (see my November 2017 web article for The Progressive, “Behind Trump’s Tough Talk on Pakistan, Follow the Money”) and is also an admirer of India’s rightwing prime minister, Narendra Modi.
That’s why, even though the proposed changes to U.S. immigration policy could have an enormous impact on Indian immigrants, the response from the Indian government has been muted at best. “Indian officials are gingerly trying to handle this,” Mishra says. “They don’t want to go completely negative, even though they are concerned.”
Already, some Indians are rethinking their plans to settle in the United States, with Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia looking more attractive. “Immigrants are asking: ‘Do I want to work here?’ ” relates Ahsan. “ ‘Do I want to be at the mercy of my employer—and this administration?’ ”
Meanwhile, Iyer and other activists are doing what they can to resist.
“We are raising awareness and documenting hate,” she says. “We are engaging in community defense and making connections between communities. We aren’t sitting still.”
Indian Americans know they must have to organize for themselves at the grassroots. But it’s an even harder fight because members of their community who are in the best position to influence the policies with such adverse effects are seemingly indifferent to their plight.
Snapshots
Nikki Haley
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
The former South Carolina governor was born Nimrata Randhawa. Her father, a professor at Punjab Agricultural University, and mother, who received a law degree from the University of Delhi, emigrated from Punjab to Canada and then to the United States in the 1960s. Haley has repeatedly cited her Indian heritage in public appearances: “Every position I’ve ever had, people have assumed that I am looking toward something bigger, when in reality I am the daughter of Indian parents who said to me, ‘Whatever you do, be great at it and make sure people remember you for it.’ ” At the same time, she has tried to blend in as much as possible, even converting from her parents’ Sikh religion to Christianity.
Ajit Pai
Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
The conservative technocrat is the son of Indian doctors who moved to the United States in the 1970s, settling in the city of Parsons, Kansas. Pai proudly recalled his immigrant history when he was nominated to the FCC in 2011: “I am the child of immigrants. My parents came to the United States from India exactly forty years ago, with about ten dollars in their pockets and a willingness to work very hard and a belief in the American Dream.”
Raj Shah
Principal deputy White House press secretary
Shah, who has a professional past as a political operative, is the child of an engineer father and a dentist mother who lived in Norwalk, Connecticut. Shah has used his immigrant heritage to score political points, as when he said, “Democrats continue to propose the types of job-killing policies that will undermine this country’s unique standing as the land of opportunity that inspired my parents and many like them to come to America.”
Seema Verma
Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Verma lived in Taiwan as a child before her parents made Indiana their home. She has touted her immigrant credentials when it has been advantageous to her. “I am extremely humbled as a first-generation American to be sitting before this committee after being nominated by the President of the United States,” Verma said during her confirmation hearings. “It is a testament to the fact that the American Dream is very much alive for those willing to work for it.”
Dimple Shah
Deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Despite her immigrant background, Shah has long associated with anti-immigrant politicians. She formerly worked for House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a proponent of immigration restrictions. CNN has said she’s part of a “loose coalition [that has] held a hardline position on illegal immigration, as well as a desire to restrict legal immigration.”
—Amitabh Pal
Amitabh Pal worked at The Progressive for eighteen years, including twelve as managing editor. He is currently writing a book about Donald Trump and Narendra Modi.