To Amrika on 'dunkis': India beware

Donald Trump won the Republican Iowa caucus by a record 30 points over his closest rival and immediately highlighted his plan to seal up the US-Mexico border. Joe Biden’s brave declaration in 2019 that anyone afraid of “oppression” should “immediately surge to the border” has come back to bite him. Migrants have been flooding the US-Mexico border since. Last year border patrol agents reported more than 2.5 million “encounters” with people trying to enter illegally.Political time bomb: As Biden fights for re-election, illegal immigration has become an explosive issue. Trump – his likely Republican opponent – talks relentlessly about “chaos” at the border. He has vowed to mount the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he wins. Coming from a man who built a “wall” and imposed stringent border controls to “keep America safe”, it’s a real possibility. Overwhelmed Democrats: Even Democratic governors and mayors are speaking out as temporary shelters overflow, temperatures drop and money dries up. Cities are desperately doing ‘jugaad’ to house and feed thousands of desperate people.Looking the other way: For more than two years Biden administration deflected and demurred, ignoring the scale of the crisis. White House insisted there was no problem and that Republicans were playing politics. Mainstream media reported the breezy declarations while right-wing outlets were streaming drone footage of the sea of humanity at the southern border. Lens on Indians: Indians are now very much part of the problem. More than 96,000 were apprehended last year trying to cross illegally. Well-heeled Indian-Americans may not talk about them but Republican presidential candidates are focused on illegal immigration. Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy – who just quit the race – never tire of citing how their families came legally and worked hard, meaning they have no patience for the “donkey route” people. How the rise in the number of illegal Indians might change perceptions of Indian Americans as a successful, educated and well-assimilated community remains to be seen. Migrants from “historically atypical countries”, including India, have risen to nearly half of the total over the last two years. Trumpian take: If Trump wins, he won’t be discreet about the Indian problem. Last time around his anti-immigrant brigade not only went after the illegals, it harassed those coming legally in equal measure. The H-1B visa became a procedural hurdle race filled with arbitrary and capricious rules. Denial rates rose, visa terms were shortened from three to one year and definition of what constitutes a specialty occupation was changed to shake the very basis of granting visa. Indian workers were badly hurt since they are the largest recipients of H-1Bs. Recall that Steve Bannon had famously said there were too many South Asian CEOs in Silicon Valley. Only after a series of lawsuits by US companies and judges striking down Trumpian rules did the situation improve but the damage was done. While Biden revoked Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, it can just as easily come back. Biden’s dilemma: But Biden’s domestic policy team also needs to introspect because it has allowed the border situation to become a political liability. A new CBS poll says 63% of Americans want Biden to be tougher. The so-called “sanctuary cities” run by Democrats (New York, Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles) where migrants were welcomed in 2021 after Biden’s victory are reeling today because Republican governors of border states – Greg Abbott of Texas for one – have been busing immigrants to them. Abbott has sent 80,000 illegal immigrants to liberal strongholds so they can practice what they preach.Two extremes: If Republicans are xenophobic as many Democrats say, ultra libs are unwilling to brook any serious policy controls. Well-entrenched immigrant advocates demand open-arm policies no matter what the ground reality and ability of the system to cope. If Biden is re-elected, at least legal immigration shouldn’t be in jeopardy. But how he handles the surge of illegals is another matter. India, get proactive: It would be prudent for New Delhi to take the problem seriously and look at the network of agents and influencers whose happy stories on Instagram perpetuate all sorts of myths in Punjab and Gujarat. Sad stories of exploitation of undocumented workers never come out. Experts say that most Indian illegals are economic migrants. But the question is why only two states dominate the “donkey route” when unemployment is a nationwide problem. No easy solutions: Once the desperate and the dogged reach the US border, almost all claim discrimination on the basis of caste, gender, sexual orientation or religion to seek asylum. Some even carry letters from politicians back home. On the US side the system is broken and infested with a well-oiled chain of lawyers and advocates. The two political parties haven’t come to an agreement for decades on how to fix it. Pushing the can down the road is easier. The writer is a columnist based in Washington DC