US immigration policy to hit 4.50 lakh Indian ‘immigrants’
Friday, 24/02/2017
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=173761&boxid=65133&uid=&dat=2017-02-24
Washington: A South-Asian rights group has opposed the Trump administration’s immigration plans, claiming that over 450,000 illegal Indian immigrants who are living in the US could be targeted by authorities. The group said the ‘undocumented’ Indian population is the fourth such largest in the US after Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala.
A day after the Department of Homeland Security issued two detailed memos to implement the executive orders issued by President Donald Trump on illegal immigrants, the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) on Wednesday said that these memos further relegate South Asian and all immigrant communities to second-class citizenship, questioning America’s very place in the quintessential nation of immigrants.
“The scale of the President’s anti-immigrant policies is extreme, and the new administration appears hell-bent on targeting and demonising immigrant communities through orders that actively undermine safety and public trust in law enforcement,” said Suman Raghunathan, Executive Director of SAALT. “Short-circuiting due process is not a crackdown on crime, but a crackdown on rights and our very founding values as a nation, and these measures must be opposed by all communities of colour,” Raghunathan said.
Currently there are 450,000 undocumented Indian-Americans in the US alone, making India the fourth-highest sending country for undocumented immigrants after Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
According to SAALT, the new policies of Trump Administration massively expand and accelerate detentions and deportations.
