MILES OF MISERY

In villages across Punjab and Haryana, lure of dollars and pressure of unemployment have fuelled the drive to reach the US, often with the help of human traffickers and shady agents. Those dreams are now shattered, with Donald Trump treating illegal immigration as "invasion", and sending them back in chains

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

An associate of Mike Pompeo, secretary of state during President Donald Trump's first term, recently spoke to an Indian official about New Delhi's obsession with H-1B visas. He recounted an experience while travelling with Pompeo to India in September 2018 on official business. During his meetings in India, Pompeo focused exclusively on China, wanting to hear more on the topic, but to his amusement, the Indians who attended the meetings kept on talking about visas.

In their push for expanding legal pathways to employment and migration, one thing they missed sharing with Pompeo was a roadmap to address the all-pervasive challenge of steady illegal migration, mostly of semi-educated youth from Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat, through a web of human trafficking networks spanning continents. "When the aspiring elite settle down in the US, it is natural that the less privileged will pursue the same objective in their own limited ways," said a senior official at the ministry of external affairs.

The problem has now arrived at India's doorstep. Rakinder Singh, 41, reached the US border on January 15, exhausted and desperate, eyes fixed on the fence that separated him from the American dream. Until recently, crossing it meant a brief encounter with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)-detained, processed and then released, free to disappear into the vast immigrant population of the world's oldest democracy. In fact, the department of homeland security's (DHS) "humanitarian" approach under the Joe Biden administration was reflected in its guidelines to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2021, asking them to recognise non-citizens' contributions to state and local communities. For decades, the US immigration system has enabled individuals who have crossed the border illegally to seek protection through the legal system.