The Guardian, Britain’s national newspaper, put up a video, sometime back, suggesting “grammar snobs are patronizing, pretentious and just plain wrong.” It argued that “those who chose to correct others’ language are clinging to conventions that are unimportant” and that grammar snobbery is often used to “silence those who have less of a voice in society.”

Yes, language can be used as a subtle tool by the educated to oppress those who have not had the same class privileges.

Ghanaian blogger, Delalorm Semabia, explained in a conversation about eradicating Queen’s English in Ghana: “the idea that intelligence is linked to English pronunciation is a legacy of colonial thinking.”

It does not require a vigorous flight of imagination to know that good language skills are always much appreciated. The history of English language is fascinating but it has much to do with the education system that one has been fortunate enough to receive.

However, there’s a time and a place for using so-called “proper” English and ridiculing anyone who steps outside of what is deemed as acceptable.

If that were so, J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye would have had no place in the annals of literature, riddled as it is in slangs and curse words. As such, the book was a break-away from accepted standards of writing.

Now with social media outlets, such as Twitter and Tumblr, developing niches for populations that are underrepresented in mainstream society; the growth of each of such niches online has paved the way towards a creatively subversive play on the mechanics of language.

Functioning as micro-editorials, social media allows space for millions, globally, to respond to news stories in real-time. Even as a corporate entity, the social media flexes democratic power by challenging millions to exercise the magic of critical thinking.

Tune into the right accounts, and any one of us can instantly be engaged with influential online activists, who regularly critique popular media news stories and legal rulings on vitriolic issues, such as racism, misogyny, LGBT acceptance, disability rights, and others.

Twitter’s efficacy is rooted in brevity. Regardless of the complexity, we have 140 characters to define our position. In this region, expressing the bottom line takes precedence over the art of composing long, intricate, and finely-manicured sentences. As a result, the subversion of grammar and the use of short-hand are particularly essential in Twitter’s cultural lexicon.

In other words, grammar isn’t as critical on social media as the thought behind the language.

This is revolutionary, considering the long history of using grammar to distinguish the literate from the illiterate. The way many Twitter users utilize language directly defies formal grammatical standards as a linguistic act of defiance against oppressive institutions.

Inclusivity is principal in this act, and there is a strict understanding that content supersedes grammar.

To elaborate, since grammar is acquired through schooling that is often denied to those who attend underfunded school districts or those who lack access to secondary and higher education, comprehensive knowledge of grammar is an indication of class privilege, which is often swept under the rug. No one wants to talk about how privileged we are. We just want to harp on our points of oppression.

Therefore, posting grammatically incorrect tweets on issues such as economic inequality is in itself a powerful action, signifying that it is, indeed, possible to have intellectual conversations outside of the formal mechanics taught by the education system. Our grammar does not have to be perfect to discuss the exploitative pursuit of economic progress in our finite planet.

What’s particularly innovative is that terminology that once used to be confined to the ivory walls of academia have become integrated into Twitter’s lexicon. For instance, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “intersectionality,” Moya Bailey’s “misogynoir,” and P.H. Collins’s “matrix of domination” are regularly used in such dialogue. The blend of colloquialisms with academic jargon levels the playing field between the masses and academic professionals to communicate relevant research to those who may not have access to it outside of social media.

For instance, members of the Latin American community have often raised the challenges of participating in a work environment that was hostile to non-native English speakers. They said, instead, that Twitter was a public outlet in which they could express their struggles in a mix of both Spanish and English without judgment.

In India, however, knowing English is a class privilege and access to English education is restricted to those of the elite who can afford the steep tuition of private schools. Therefore, the intentional de-centering of grammar facilitates the inclusion of working-class migrant populations.

Code-switching, the intuitive art of speaking in a mix of two or more languages is common on social media and the result is less referred to as “broken English” and is more often accepted as “linguistic diversity.”

The internet has a tendency to “flatten” experiences and nuances that are more prevalent offline. Manipulating grammar and vocabulary, along with flexing the use of humor, shared internet memes, and smartphone photography, all help to return tone, personality, and a sense of humanity to otherwise isolated blocks of anonymous text.

This technique is specifically important on regions of social media where underrepresented populations collaborate, discuss, and share experiences with the goal of understanding the ways in which the personal is connected to the political.

With the resulting acceptance of shared humanity within the context of differing histories, the social media serves as both a support system and a platform for debate and discussion for voices that are generally suppressed by mainstream narratives.

Lavanya Mookerjee, has received the Tim Marks scholarship for the Arts, the Academic Excellence award and the 2013 Franis J. Ryan award for “Best Undergraduate Research Paper” at Eastern American Studies Association Conference.She was also a digital humanities panelist for 2017 Modern Language Association Conference (MLA) and an invited researcher at Georgia Tech’s Humanities Data Visualization workshop. She is currently working while pursuing a second post-graduate degree.

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NAYPYITAW (Reuters) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that India shared Myanmar’s concern about “extremist violence” in its Rakhine state, where a security force operation against Muslim rebels has sent about 125,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

Modi spoke after talks with Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a visit aimed at expanding commercial ties as part of an “Act East” policy, and pushing back against Chinese influence.

Myanmar has come under international pressure after some 125,000 Rohingya Muslims fled from a surge of violence in Rakhine state, beginning with an Aug. 25 attack by Rohingya insurgents on dozens of police posts and an army base.

The rebel attacks triggered a sweep by the Myanmar security forces, in which refugees and right groups say many innocent Rohingya have been targeted.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects accusations by refugees and rights groups that its armed forces have violated the rights of the mostly stateless Rohingya, saying the army and police are fighting “terrorists”.

Mostly Hindu India has faced years of attacks by Islamist militants.

Suu Kyi told a joint news conference at the presidential palace in the capital, Naypyitaw, that Myanmar was grateful for India’s stance on the attack on her country and they could work together to face the challenge.

“We would like to thank India particularly for its strong stance that it has taken with regard to terrorist threat that came to our country a couple of weeks ago,” she said in brief remarks.

“We believe that together we can work to make sure that terrorism is not allowed to take root on our soil.”

Modi said India and Myanmar had similar security interests in the region.

“We share your concerns about extremist violence in Rakhine state and specially the violence against security forces and how innocent lives have been affected,” he said.

“We hope that all the stakeholders together can find a way out in which the unity and territorial integrity of Myanmar is respected and at the same time we can have peace, justice dignity and democratic values for all.”

Modi’s government has taken a strong stance on an influx into India of some 40,000 Rohingya from Myanmar over the years, vowing last month to deport them all

That decision has drawn criticism from rights groups and prompted a petition in the Supreme Court to stop the government from doing so.

International concern, in particular from Muslim countries, is growing about the latest exodus of Rohingya.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has pressed world leaders to do more to help the population of roughly 1.1 million, saying they are facing genocide.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday of the risk of ethnic cleansing and regional destabilisation.

India is trying to boost economic ties with resource-rich Myanmar, with which it shares a 1,600-km (1,000-mile) border, to counter Chinese influence and step up links with a country it considers its gateway to Southeast Asia.

Two-way trade has grown to about $2.2 billion as India courts Myanmar following the gradual end of military rule, but Indian-funded projects have moved slowly.

India recently started exporting diesel to Myanmar via a land route, in a boost to Modi’s pledge to enhance hydrocarbon trade with neighbours

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“The effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of minors at the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences.”- Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in remarks announcing the rescission of DACA, Sept. 5, 2017

“The temporary implementation of DACA by the Obama Administration, after Congress repeatedly rejected this amnesty-first approach, also helped spur a humanitarian crisis – the massive surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America including, in some cases, young people who would become members of violent gangs throughout our country, such as MS-13.”- President Trump, in a statement on DACA, Sept. 5

—

In announcing the end of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asserted that the 2012 action “contributed” to the massive influx of unaccompanied minors from Central America that peaked in 2014.

The president’s written statement on ending DACA echoed this claim – that it “helped spur a humanitarian crisis” involving the Central American children. The statement then tried to tie that crisis to violence by MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, a Central American gang that has been operating in the United States since the 1980s. A White House fact sheet was slightly more nuanced: “Partly because of DACA, the United States saw a surge in illegal immigration by minors in 2013-2014, because they hoped to take advantage of the program.”

The careful statements use political weasel words – “among other things, contributed” and “helped spur” and “partly” – that always jump out at The Fact Checker. What is the evidence for the claim that DACA led to the surge of unaccompanied minors?

—

The Facts

DACA was intended to let “dreamers” – children of illegal immigrants who in many cases knew no other home – to avoid deportation and get work permits that are renewed every two years. A recent survey of about 3,000 DACA applicants found the median age on arriving in the United States was 6.

Under the programs, the Obama administration set forth requirements for qualifying for DACA, including having resided in the United States continuously from June 15, 2007, to June 15, 2012. Applicants also needed to have arrived with a parent and before turning 16, be in school or be a graduate of high school, or be a military veteran and not convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor or three or more misdemeanors.

Essentially, Obama was ordering a program of “prosecutorial discretion” that would not target for deportation undocumented aliens who meet these qualifications. When Obama announced the program, he said it was intended as a temporary action – and not a pathway to citizenship – because Congress had failed to pass legislation accomplishing the same goals.

In 2014, nearly 70,000 unaccompanied children were apprehended at the southern border as they made the trek from Central America to the U.S. border, a jump of 77 percent from the previous year. Most fled violence and abuse in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

A theory emerged, especially among immigration foes such as then-Sen. Sessions, that Obama’s DACA policy was also responsible for the influx of unaccompanied arrivals. But there are substantial problems with this theory, both in logic and statistics.

Note the DACA rules above, which included arriving before Obama’s June 15, 2012, announcement, arriving with a parent and living continuously in the United States for five years. “These young people would not have qualified,” said Doris M. Meissner, who was commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service during the Bill Clinton administration and now directs the immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute.

Meissner acknowledged that there is evidence that smugglers increasingly suggested the children could get a “permisos” to stay for a while in the United States. The Washington Post in 2014 reported that a leaked Border Patrol memo summarizing interviews with children detained at the border in 2014 indicated that “the main reason the migrants had crossed into the United States was ‘to take advantage of the ‘new’ U.S. law that grants a free pass or permit’ from the government.”

A Justice Department official cited the Post article as evidence for Sessions’s statement, but the article does not mention DACA. Instead, it refers to “the perception they will be allowed to stay under the Obama administration’s immigration policies.”

The Justice Department official noted that after DACA, the number of unaccompanied children surged in 2013, for a 59 percent increase over the previous year – and then another 77 percent in 2014.

Meissner said that the promise of “permisos” was not related to DACA but instead the fact that children from countries that did not border the United States were allowed to stay in the United States, with relatives, until they faced deportation hearings – and at the time that could take a year or more.

A key reason for this situation was an anti-trafficking law signed in 2008 by President George W. Bush. The law, Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), ordered that within 72 hours of determining that a child is an unaccompanied minor and is from a country other than Mexico or Canada, that child should be transferred by the Border Patrol into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Virtually all of these children – 90 percent – were then housed with relatives or family friends while the they awaited hearings; the rest were placed in foster care.

In peer-reviewed academic study published in International Migration in 2016, researchers Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes and Thitima Puttitanun crunched the data and concluded that the anti-trafficking law, along with violence in the originating countries and economic conditions, was largely responsible for the surge in unaccompanied minors, whereas DACA had no significant impact. They noted that the rise in unaccompanied minors began in 2009, the year after the passage of the law, when the number increased by 145 percent year over year.

The number of unaccompanied children “practically doubled since the passage of the aforementioned law by the US Congress, probably due to the fact that children from non-neighboring countries were allowed to stay in the United States, often for years, while awaiting a hearing,” Amuedo-Dorantes and Puttitanun wrote. “In contrast, in relative terms, the TVPRA lowered by approximately 26 per cent apprehensions of unaccompanied minors originating from Mexico, who continued to be returned immediately to their home country following their apprehension via expedited removals.”

David Bier, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, has noted that Bush administration also faced a child-migrant crisis, but there is no data for unaccompanied minors before 2008. “Before the recession, its [Customs and Border Patrol] statistics show that huge numbers of children were coming to the border,” he wrote. “Juvenile arrivals are simply returning to their pre-recession trend.”

The Justice Department official noted that in 2010, Obama himself had warned that giving legal status to people in the country illegally could have negative repercussions. “I recognize the sense of compassion that drives this argument, but I believe such an indiscriminate approach would be both unwise and unfair,” Obama said. “It would suggest to those thinking about coming here illegally that there will be no repercussions for such a decision. And this could lead to a surge in more illegal immigration.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

—

The Pinocchio Test

Sessions and Trump used carefully-parsed words in an effort to have their cake and eat it too.

There was a surge in unaccompanied children in 2014, two years after DACA was announced. But that does not mean DACA led to that crisis or even contributed significantly to it. A bigger factor appears to be the 2008 law signed by Bush – as well as violence and economic conditions in the countries the children fled. DACA may have helped foster a perception that Obama was lenient on illegal immigrants, but it is hard to draw a direct line, as Sessions and Trump strive to do.

Sessions was more careful in his phrasing, since he acknowledged there were other factors behind the surge. We wavered between Two and Three Pinocchios, with Sessions’s statement more of a Two and Trump leaning toward Three. Since Trump is the president, his language is more important and thus earns a Three.

Three Pinocchios

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KEY WEST, Fla. – Hurricane Irma barreled toward the U.S. mainland Wednesday, prompting the southernmost county in Florida to begin evacuations along its lone island-hopping highway while the “potentially catastrophic Category 5″ storm menaced Puerto Rico and a wide swath of the Caribbean.

Forecasters said Irma posed an increasing threat to South Florida, a sprawling and densely populated mass of cities and suburbs hugging the coastline. As dire warnings mounted, schools and offices began to shut down, grocery store shelves were wiped clean and authorities ordered evacuations with more to follow.

The most powerful hurricane to threaten the Atlantic coast in more than a decade, Irma has swelled into a monster force with maximum sustained winds near 185 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The center said Irma’s “extremely dangerous core” would move over the Leeward Islands on Wednesday morning before heading toward the northern Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico later in the day.

Throughout the American territories and other Caribbean islands in Irma’s path, residents watched the storm with fear, wondering whether they would emerge from Irma with destroyed homes or no electricity for months. Irma’s eye passed over Barbuda at around 1:47 a.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service said, while on the French Caribbean islands of St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, residents were ordered to remain indoors.

According to the Post’s Capital Weather Gang, Barbuda took a direct hit and the weather station there registered a wind gust of 155 mph hour before going offline, while the storm surge on the island – or the swell of water above normally dry land – reached at least 8 feet. By Wednesday morning, the National Hurricane Center said Irma’s eye had passed over St. Martin and warned that the storm could bring dangers including life-threatening storm surges, destructive winds, flash floods and mud slides to Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and beyond.

Further north, the Florida Keys on Wednesday morning ordered the first mandatory evacuations triggered by Irma in the United States. Monroe County, which includes the Keys and covers the southernmost stretch of the Sunshine State, began mandatory evacuations of tourists and visitors on Wednesday morning. The county is also home to some 80,000 residents, who were ordered to evacuate beginning Wednesday evening.

In Key West, hotels closed down ahead of the evacuation order and the airport was scheduled to halt operations later Wednesday. Gas stations reported low fuel stocks and grocery stores ran out of bottled water. Residents and business owners boarded up windows and hauled boats out of the water, while tourists and residents had already begun crowding the single highway that snakes through the 120-mile island chain and into the Florida mainland.

Many businesses on Key West’s famed Duval Street were shuttered Tuesday – with the exception of a few bars and restaurants – and many residents were streaming to the mainland by car on Route A1A.

“We’re emphatically telling people you must evacuate,” said the director of Monroe County’s Emergency Operations Center, Martin Senterfitt. “You cannot afford to stay on an island with a Category 5 hurricane coming at you.”

Carolyn Boutte, 44, said she and her husband moved to a house in Key West four years ago from Gloucester, Mass., and they have never been through a hurricane threat like this. They searched for gas on Tuesday so they could escape, but the first three stations already had run out of fuel and lines were long everywhere else. She finally ran into some luck – at a station where she had to wait 45 minutes for a fill.

“My husband and I are packing up the dog and our Harley Davidson,” said Boutte, a marine biologist. “Unless the hurricane changes paths, we are getting out of here in the next couple of days.”

Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted: “Please do not ignore evacuation orders. Remember, we can rebuild your home, not your life.”

Even as the full devastation from Hurricane Harvey was still being tallied in Texas and along the Gulf Coast, authorities have shifted their attention to Florida, with a particular unease in South Florida, home to 6 million people across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties – many of whom vividly remember Hurricane Andrew’s onslaught a quarter-century ago.

The National Weather Service said Wednesday that the threat of an impact to South Florida “continues to increase,” with concerns about what could happen between Friday night and Monday.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening declared an emergency in Florida as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and Florida Gov. Scott, R, activated 100 members of the Florida National Guard and said he has directed all 7,000 members to report for duty on Friday.

The Pentagon approved the use of two ships – originally deployed for Harvey relief – to assist in Florida as needed. William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that incident management assistance personnel already are on the ground in vulnerable areas.

“Just like in Texas, the response to Irma is going to take all levels of government and the whole community,” Long said in a statement. “This has the potential to be a catastrophic storm.”

Officials across Florida responded to the dire forecasts by slowly shutting down the contours of daily life. Monroe County canceled classes for the rest of the week, while school districts in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach – three of the country’s largest, with a combined enrollment north of 800,000 students – said they were canceling classes on Thursday and Friday.

The NFL said the Miami Dolphins season opener scheduled for Sunday afternoon against Tampa Bay would not be played in South Florida as planned, and would move either to a neutral location the same day or would be rescheduled for later in the season. The University of Central Florida in Orlando, which could face punishing weather if Irma crawls up the coastline, moved a football game to Friday night, while other schools said they were still monitoring the situation.

Scott, who earlier this week declared a statewide emergency, has warned that Irma could require large-scale evacuations or severely impact areas battered last year by Hurricane Matthew, which sent punishing flooding into parts of the state.

But it was still not clear Wednesday how much of the state could be imperiled by Irma. The uncertainty of Irma’s track and the geography of the Florida peninsula combined to create an unusually broad, essentially statewide sense of emergency in a place where most of the population lives along the coasts. Irma could potentially ride up either side of Florida or track further west into the Gulf of Mexico and endanger the state’s panhandle.

Miami-Dade, the most populous county in Florida, said it would begin ordering evacuations on Wednesday, likely starting with the coastal regions and Miami Beach.

In Estero, on the state’s Gulf Coast, residents were either hunkering down or starting to flee. Stocks of water and flashlights at grocery stores were wiped out, and gas was becoming scarce. A sign on the door of a Speedway gas station warned customers: “No gas, no propane, no water, sorry.”

“We’ve never been this worried in our entire lives,” said Jose Torres, 25, who plans to evacuate to Georgia on Wednesday.

The main routes out of South Florida are Interstate 95 and the Florida Turnpike, which can be prone to traffic on the best of days. In an effort to smooth travel, Scott on Tuesday ordered that no tolls be collected.

The main route west, meanwhile, is Interstate 75 – the so-called “Alligator Alley.” If the storm does track up the state’s spine, as Scott noted, that could make evacuations extremely complex.

The last major hurricane – registering as a Category 3 storm or stronger – to make landfall in Florida was Hurricane Wilma in October 2005. Wilma also was the last major hurricane to make landfall in the United States until Harvey struck Texas late last month.

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Dopinder, the Indian cab driver who gave bad relationship advice and took high fives as a form of payment in Deadpool, has become a trending sensation overnight after he starred in HBO’s show Room 104.

The Indian American actor Karan Soni is a ‘guest’ in the fifth episode titled “The Internet,” which takes place in 1997 and Soni’s character, Anish, a writer who wants to be a novelist, has forgotten his laptop at his mother’s house, so he is on the phone with her, guiding her through the mechanics of his laptop to get her to email his script to him as he has a meeting fixed with an agent.

But the role wasn’t originally written for an Indian, instead, due to a scheduling conflict the original actor couldn’t play the part and so with a less than 24 hour notice, Soni pulled an all-nighter, arriving on set the next morning only to know that Poorna Jagannathan, the actress who plays his mother, will be off stage for the whole episode.

Hardly knowing each other for a few minutes, Soni and Jagannathan managed to improvise the script to make it sound more Indian by adding words like “beta and raja” and sure enough it was loved by all.

Other than Room 104 and Deadpool, Soni has starred in other movies like Ghostbusters and Office Christmas Party, along with TV Shows such as Betas, Melissa & Joey and Silicon Valley to name a few.

Soni was born in New Delhi, India and he came to the United States when he was 18, to attend the University of Southern California.

He got his first role on a TV show at age 21 and a few months later, he landed a role in the movie Safety Not Guaranteed with Aubrey Plaza and Jake Johnson, which did really well at Sundance Film Festival.

“Until then, I was working part time in a restaurant. When I was 23, I quit my job. I had a plan that by the time I was 30, if I still have a part-time job and I don’t have enough money and I am just doing this then I will quit. Luckily at 23, I think I am working enough and don’t have to do a part time job,” he told the Deccan Chronicle.

Soni is also known as the “did it hurt when you fell from heaven” guy from the AT&T commercials and was recently signed by the CAA, one of Hollywood’s top agencies for actors and sportsmen; their clients include Jennifer Aniston, George Clooney, Lupita Nyong’o, Priyanka Chopra and Amish Tripathi.

Soni also told the Deccan Chronicle that he felt that he was being typecast as a stereotypical Indian in Deadpool although his performance was appreciated worldwide.

“I have worked a lot in America and have played all kinds of characters. In my TV show Blunt Talk with Patrick Stewart, I play a news producer and there is nothing Indian about the character. This summer, I’ll be in the Ghostbusters movie where I play an American character. I did not feel like I was being stereotyped in Deadpool. In fact, I have never been cast as someone who speaks in Indian accent, so for me, playing Dopinder was different and I was really excited… and it was fun. But moving forward, if I get offered a role where I play another cab driver, I am not going to take that. That would be stereotyping,” he stated in the Deccan Chronicle report.

However, he added the fact that Indian actors do have a market in America and with more Indians being cast in TV series, the opportunities are just getting bigger.

“You get to see an Indian character in almost every TV show. Now, Priyanka’s Quantico is doing really well and even Aziz Ansari was appreciated for his show (Master Of None), so you see a lot of Indians on TV,” he said.

But acting wasn’t always what he wanted to do, “I came to LA to study in the University of South California and started taking business classes. My professors would keep saying that I should audition for TV shows and movies so that just got planted in my head. I got really lucky and I found a small agent who had seen me in a play and then he started sending me for auditions.”

Soni’s upcoming films include Unicorn Store, Creep 2 and Deadpool 2; however he doesn’t mind doing a Bollywood film someday and eventually desires to work with Karan Johar.

In fact, Soni is in the process of writing a script for a movie that he would like to cast Bollywood actors in as “90 percent of the story is set in India.”

“If it gets made, there are characters for which I would want to cast Bollywood actors. I think that this project is something that people will be interested in producing because I feel like Americans would love to see Bollywood actors.”

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Five Indian-Americans, including four women, have been featured in the 2017 Politico 50 list for their note-worthy contributions in the U.S. government, these include: Nikki Haley, Seema Verma Neal Katyal, Aparna Mathur and Neomi Rao.

Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, is ranked at 22 and is known as “Trump’s foreign policy good cop.”

The former South Carolina governor quickly emerged as a security blanket that Republicans and Democrats can cling onto when they try to comprehend where the Trump administration stands on global affairs.

“Haley’s commitment to both her boss in the White House and a traditional foreign policy can sometimes induce cognitive dissonance. She is focused on human rights, sounding off on everything from Venezuela to South Sudan, but dismisses suggestions that Trump, who seems indifferent to the topic, doesn’t care.”

Verma, who heads a top health care position as an Administrator for the center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Trump administration, is ranking at 26.

She has been described as Medicaid rollback engineer and “now leads a 6,500-person federal bureaucracy that oversees not just Obamacare but Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for the poor. She has promised more flexibility for states to experiment with new Medicaid approaches that would let them skirt federal requirements, and signalled a willingness to green-light policy ideas she helped shepherd in Indiana.”

Mathur is an economist at the American Enterprise Institute and is ranked at 32 for making the conservative case for family leave.

Katyal is a partner at Hogan Lovells is ranked 40 for being President Donald Trump’s travel ban’s legal nemesis.

“Katyal, the 47-year-old Chicago-born son of Indian immigrants, has drawn particular attention for arguing that Trump’s order runs afoul of immigration laws on the books that determine whom the president can exclude from the country and how visas are issued. That approach gives judges a chance to block the ban without wading into the politically explosive question of Trump’s motivation and whether the president aimed to discriminate on the basis of religion.”

Rao is the director of the office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, has been described as Washington’s new regulatory czar, she has been ranked at 42.

“As head of OIRA, Rao will scrutinise all significant regulations the Trump administration proposes, ensuring that agencies stick to the White House’s agenda. She is also responsible for implementing Trump’s executive orders directing agencies to repeal two regulations for each significant one they issue, and to draw up plans for regulatory reform.”

Steve Bannon, the former White House Chief Strategist, topped the list and Speaker Paul Ryan was the last to be ranked.

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In 2008, the then Indian American City Councilwoman of Saratoga, Susie Nagpal introduced her city to her heritage and started “Saratoga Dandia” in hopes of bringing a prominent Indian cultural presence to the city.

The event was established to celebrate her victory as the first Indian-American to earn a seat on the Saratoga City Council but she only lived two years to see it as in 2010, she died from lung cancer at the age of 46.

Her legacy has lived on though and this year, “Saratoga Dandia” will celebrate nine years as the annual event is set for Saturday, Sept. 16, from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. in West Valley College’s large gym.

“It is awesome to see the community come together for this event in their colorful and festive outfits,” Seema Kumar, the event’s coordinator, told Mercury News.

“People of all age groups dancing with their friends and families, everyone making new friends while dancing that evening and fully enjoying the pleasure and happiness all that music and dance have to offer,” she added.

Kumar has been a part of the event since its inception and a growing attendance, from 200 at Redwood Middle School to more than 1,000, has prompted a move to a bigger venue.

“The youth feel empowered in helping put together an event of such scale, and they also discover the cultures and traditions of an ancient civilization and practice. The networking that happens is amazing,” Kumar said.

“We love running a quality event, and we keep the headcount low enough to provide lots of room for all to dance and have a great time. We keep the event very inclusive, and the whole world is invited to join and be part of a fun Saratoga evening, for a good cause,” Kumar added.

Saratoga’s event involves the traditional dance, which includes the sticks, live music from the husband and wife duo known as Sargam Sangeet Group, ethnic attire and food from Chaat Bhavan.

The Dandia are made by volunteers from the Saratoga Hindu Temple and Community Center.

A free training for Saratoga Dandia is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 10, 4:15-6 p.m. at the Saratoga Community Center.

Ticket are available for $18 and $15 for groups of 15 or more; all proceeds will benefit the free educational, health, spiritual and religious classes held weekly at the Saratoga Community Center.

For more information, visit saratogadandia.org.

Nagpal was born in London to parents Sundarajan and Nirmala Vedantham, who also live in Saratoga, the family moved to the United States when Nagpal and her sister were teenagers and settled in San Francisco.

According to a Mercury News report, Nagpal attended Lowell High School then enrolled at San Jose State University, where she majored in materials engineering and met Amit Nagpal, whom she married in 1987.

She received her master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of San Francisco and not long after, the couple worked together to help build up an environmental engineering firm in San Jose, which was eventually bought out by a large company.

After having two children, Nagpal decided to apply for a spot on the Saratoga Planning Commission, where she served from 2003 to 2008 and decided to run for City Council, beating out two other candidates, asking her father to swear her into office.

When she wasn’t attending council meetings or city functions, Nagpal worked for an environmental engineering consulting firm.

After suffering a lingering back ache, she was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer but continued to attend council meetings while she underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment; she died on May 12, 2010.

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NEW DELHI – The killing of a prominent journalist and government critic outside her home in Bangalore prompted protests in major Indian cities Wednesday and a national uproar about the shrinking space for free speech in the world’s most populous democracy.

Gauri Lankesh, 55, was shot in the head and chest Tuesday on her doorstep by motorcycle-riding gunmen. Police have said it is too early to comment on a possible motive for the killing.

The activist was given a state funeral in Bangalore, where her body was displayed in a glass case adorned with marigolds.

Activists gathered at the Press Club in New Delhi and in cities across India holding signs that read “#IamGauri,” and “Who is next?” They shouted the slogan: “May Gauri Lankesh remain immortal.”

The murder was condemned by organizations such as Amnesty International. The U.S. Embassy in India said in a statement: “The U.S. Mission in India joins advocates of press freedom in India and worldwide in condemning the murder of respected journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bangalore. We offer our sincere condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Ms. Lankesh.”

Though police have not yet identified any suspects, Lankesh’s death is widely being attributed to her work as a journalist and activist.

“They want us to be intimidated,” said Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, former editor of academic journal Economic and Political Weekly, speaking at the Press Club. “I hope that a thousand Gauri Lankeshs will be born and will rise among us.”

Lankesh was a vocal critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the rising far-right Hindu nationalism associated with his party. Her death is reminiscent of a string of recent killings that targeted leftist academics and scholars, activists said. They compared Lankesh with Malleshappa Kalburgi and Narendra Dabholkar, both noted rationalist thinkers who were killed recently.

Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of online news portal The Wire, said, “I think there should be no doubt in our mind that she has been killed because of her work as a journalist.” He said the police failed to properly investigate the deaths of Kalburgi and Dabholkar and that the failure encouraged those who killed Lankesh.

According to the World Press Freedom Index, India fell three points in 2017, ranking 136 out of 180 countries. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 27 journalists have been murdered since 1992.

Lankesh’s killing is the most high profile in recent years. She edited a popular regional tabloid called Gauri Lankesh Patrike, known for its irreverence toward politicians and its coverage of issues that affected the most marginalized sections of society.

“She was very respected and well-known,” said Ramesh Aroli, who teaches journalism at Kamala Nehru College at the University of Delhi and who is writing a doctoral thesis on Lankesh Patrike. “People used to call her office to complain about corrupt politicians.”

Lankesh Patrike was started by Gauri’s father, P. Lankesh, a poet and literary giant in Karnataka. When it first came out in the 1980s, the publication dramatically altered the regional media scene, poking fun at politicians and spotlighting issues that mattered to the rural and semi-urban populations of the state, rather than catering to city dwellers.

Lankesh inherited the paper in 2000 when her father died. But differences with her brother resulted in a split, and in 2005 Lankesh started her own publication. This week’s issue carried a cover story about a former chief minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yeddyurappa, who had previously been arrested for a corruption scandal, with a headline that read, “Once again, the fear of jail.”

Lankesh’s recalcitrant stories had prompted death threats and abuses on social media and on the phone, friends said. In November 2016, she was convicted of defamation, a criminal charge in India, after she ran a story alleging that leaders of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party were involved in a scam to cheat a local jeweler.

“She was not an intellectual like her father per se,” said Umapathy, a journalist and friend of Lankesh’s, who only goes by one name. “But she was a firebrand activist, much more so than her father was.”

At the press club in New Delhi, people paid tributes to Lankesh’s work on behalf of people historically underrepresented in India: women, those in low castes and the poor. A student activist recalled how Lankesh had donated her own money to help a struggling fellow student to pay for his studies abroad.

Close friends of Lankesh’s expressed disbelief at the news of her death. “I wish it was a dream,” said Bharathi Gowda, who knew Lankesh for three decades. “Her family is in shock.”

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NEW DELHI – Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday assumed charge as India’s first full-time woman Defense Minister, and asserted she would be a “round-the-clock” Minister, with focus on preparedness of the armed forces, welfare of soldiers and indigenous defence production.

Sitharaman was received at South Block, which houses the Defense Ministry, by predecessor Arun Jaitley, Minister of State for Defense Subhash Bhamre, Defense Secretary Sanjay Mitra, Secretary Defense Production A.K. Gupta, Chairman DRDO S. Christopher and other senior officials.

Two priests were present at her office to offer prayers as she took over the new charge.

“I shall ensure that all defence priorities are well attended to. I will be available round the clock,” Sitharaman said after taking charge.

“My priority will definitely be the preparedness of the armed forces. It is important that the armed forces receive all the attention in terms of getting necessary endowment and equipment to perform their duties with the best of equipment available,” she said.

“I will attend to all long-pending issues (related to defence), and in consultation with the Prime Minister and the cabinet… the Cabinet Committee on Security… and ensure that those issues get resolved,” Sitharaman said.

The Minister said indigenous manufacturing in defence will be one of the key areas for her, as envisioned in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Make in India programme.

“Make in India in defence production is very important for India’s defence capabilities… It is something that will be of great importance to us,” she said.

Pointing out that India was one of the biggest defence equipment buyers in the world, Sitharaman said domestic defence production will receive a boost due to technology transfer to the country.

She said the welfare of soldiers and their families was also one of her top priorities. “Although I am saying this at the end, certainly not least in importance is the armed forces’ families and their welfare.”

“Soldiers (deployed) on the toughest border, challenging situations, should remain absolutely assured that their interests are being watched.”

The new Defense Minister approved a grant of around Rs 13 crore for 8,685 ex-servicemen, widows and dependents from the Armed Forces Flag Day Fund. She also approved financial assistance out of the Raksha Mantri Ex-Servicemen Fund, a statement said.

Sitharaman, a former Commerce and Industry Minister, was elevated to Cabinet Minister rank and given charge of the crucial defense portfolio in Sunday’s cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She could not take charge until Thursday as Arun Jaitley, who was holding additional charge of Defence, was on a visit to Japan for a bilateral dialogue.

Sitharaman is the first woman to hold full-time charge of the defense portfolio. In the past, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi held the portfolio twice — from December 1 to December 21, 1975, and January 14, 1980, to January 15, 1982.

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MIAMI – As Caribbean islands pummeled by Hurricane Irma began to grapple with the monster storm’s toll Thursday, nervous residents of South Florida packed highways seeking safer ground amid forecasts warning that Irma posed an increasing threat to the highly populated area.

The National Hurricane Center said a hurricane watch will likely be called later Thursday for parts of South Florida and the Keys – both areas that have begun ordering evacuations – as Irma’s Category 5 force pinwheeled eastward through the Caribbean leaving a wake of leveled neighborhoods, ravaged seafronts and at least 10 people dead.

Irma continued grinding onward toward the Bahamas with winds hitting 180 mph and higher gusts registered, according to the hurricane center, which warned of storm surges capable of swallowing huge sections of the coast.

After the Bahamas, Irma’s expected path takes aim at Florida, including the ribbon of cities, dense suburbs and swampland that are home to more than 6 million people from Palm Beach to Miami-Dade counties.

By Thursday morning, as Irma’s eye was moving north off the island of Hispaniola, aid workers in Haiti – a vulnerable nation already devastated by a major earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 – were preparing for yet another potential disaster.

Concern centered on Haiti’s flood-prone north, which was expected to be hardest hit. Haiti raised its hurricane alert level to red, its highest, and the north coast remained under a hurricane watch as the central coast faced the threat of tropical storm winds and rain.

Nevertheless, aid groups said the national hurricane response appeared to be slow. Many evacuations in the north were set to unfold as rains rapidly approached and low quality shelters were still being finished.

School was canceled across the country as national warnings went out through social media, radio and television. In some remote towns, word to take shelter was being spread largely via local officials with bullhorns. Though Irma’s eye was on track to pass offshore, even a glancing blow could flood roads and bridges, bring mudslides and topple rickety housing, dealing yet another blow to the hemisphere’s poorest nation.

One major concern was the spread of a cholera outbreak already plaguing the island nation. In one sense, Haiti’s series of major disasters gave the nation at least one benefit: A large existent presence by international aid groups. Many groups said they were poised with teams and vehicles to help bring in medical and food aid.

What Irma has left behind so far was a string of once-lush islands scoured clean by the storm’s force. Aerial images released by the Dutch Defense Ministry on the island of Saint Martin showed scores of homes with roofs sheered away and palm trees stripped bare. French authorities said at least eight people have died on the island, whose control is shared with the Netherlands.

The president of the territorial council, Daniel Gibbs, told Radio Caraibes International that Saint-Martin is “95 percent destroyed.” On the islands of Barbuda and Anguilla, meanwhile, at least one death was reported on each.

On St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Laura Strickling spent 12 hours huddled with her husband and 1-year-old daughter in a basement apartment. “It will take years for this community to get back on its feet,” she told the Associated Press.

Irma’s sustained winds – which hit 185 mph on Thursday – were the strongest recorded for an Atlantic hurricane making landfall, tied with the 1935 Florida Keys hurricane.

On Virginia Key, at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, professor David Nolan was putting heavy plastic over computer terminals, in case the roof leaks during the storm.

He said his family plans to drive to Atlanta, while he’ll ride it out behind storm shutters at his home in Coral Gables. But that plan could change, he said. Lots of people are still thinking this through.

The mood in South Florida, he said, “is frantic.”

“Anxious, frantic,” chimed in his colleague, senior research associate Brian McNoldy.

“I saw a gas-station-induced car accident happen right in front of me yesterday,” Nolan said.

McNoldy, who contributes to The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, called up the model forecasts and showed how Irma is expected to move in more or less a straight line toward Florida, west by northwest, but then hang a sharp right to the north.

That track could send it right to McNoldy’s cubicle and on up the Gold Coast, as if the storm were trying to grind away a century of urbanization.

“That’s extremely bad,” he said. “That’s basically every East Coast Florida city. This could easily be the most expensive U.S. storm if this happens.”

The Florida Keys are particularly vulnerable. Monroe County, home to the Keys, began mandatory evacuations of tourists and visitors Wednesday morning. The county’s 80,000 residents were ordered to evacuate beginning Wednesday evening.

The main drag in Key West, Duval Street, was largely empty by late Wednesday. Many storefronts already had been sandbagged and boarded up. But some people will ride out the storm – as Floridians often do even when told they’re supposed to leave.

At the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, general manager Jacqui Sands said she’s not going anywhere. She is charged with securing the legendary author’s 19th-century estate as well as ensuring the safety of the 55 cats that roam the lush grounds here, many of them with six and seven toes on each paw.

“If I didn’t have to, I wouldn’t stay,” Sands said. “My kids told me to get the hell out. But I have an obligation to take care of the building and the cats.”

The petite 72-year-old will be joined by nine employees, four of whom she has sent off to retrieve storm shutters and plywood from a nearby storage facility to board up windows and doors. “They couldn’t leave because either they don’t have a car or couldn’t find a flight out of here,” she said. “I think we are going to be fine.”

At the Key West Port, the cruise ships had long departed for safer docks, and the inlet was devoid of pleasure craft. Only four small vessels remained in the marina, including a 50-foot boat that ferries residents and hotel guests to and from Sunset Key, a private, 27-acre resort located in waters nearby.

The ship’s captain, William “Harry” Privette, 80, said he’s never been caught in a hurricane.

“Every time, it either veered off or never arrived,” he said. He hopes to keep his track record intact. “I know what happens when they show up. I don’t want to be here when this one does. It’s nasty.”

On the mainland, Miami-Dade County was set to begin evacuations Thursday morning along the coast, while Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief said evacuations would begin there at noon for people in the eastern portion of the county that runs alongside the Atlantic Ocean.

“This storm is bigger, faster and stronger than Hurricane Andrew,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott, R, said Wednesday, emphasizing that even with Irma’s uncertain trajectory, officials were preparing for a direct impact. “Do not sit and wait for the storm to come. It is extremely dangerous and deadly and will cause devastation. Get prepared right now.”

Scott, who earlier this week declared a statewide emergency, has warned that Irma could require large-scale evacuations and severely impact areas battered last year by Hurricane Matthew, which sent punishing flooding into parts of the state. A state of emergency was also declared in North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday.

Officials across Florida responded to the dire forecasts by slowly shutting down the contours of daily life. Schools closed; the NFL postponed the Miami Dolphins’ season opener scheduled for Sunday; the University of Central Florida in Orlando, which could face punishing weather if Irma crawls up the coastline, moved a football game to Friday night; and the University of Miami – the Hurricanes – announced the cancellations of its football game set for this Saturday in Arkansas so the team doesn’t have to travel.

In Miami Beach, three young Europeans who flew to the area to meet girls were among dozens of hotel guests with no choice but to evacuate the National Hotel, a restored Art Deco facility right on the beach, by Thursday afternoon.

Ruben Vandebosch, 28, and Wim Marten, 26, both of Belgium, along with Jim Van Es, 24, of the Netherlands, said they planned to drive to Atlanta. Why Atlanta?

“Atlanta has a nice ring to it,” Vandebosch said. “It sounds cool.”

Putting the best spin on it, Marten said the hurricane “opens opportunities” for them, adding: “Now we can say we’ve been in a hurricane.”

Storm preparations also were underway at two nuclear sites in Florida – 45-year-old Turkey Point 25 miles south of Miami and 41-year-old St. Lucie further north along the coast. They belong to NextEra, a utility with about 5 million electricity customers in Florida. NextEra said that it will shut down its four nuclear reactors before Irma makes landfall. That will reduce the heat in the reactors and the need for electricity.

NextEra also said that its reactors could weather a loss of electricity of the sort that caused a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi reactors after the tsunami there in 2011. NextEra spokesman Peter Robbins said that the nuclear plants have diesel generators located 20 feet above sea level inside reinforced concrete structures.

People across Florida who planned to ride out the storm were clearing store shelves of water, food and supplies, and people trying to drive north had to search for gas – and hotel rooms. Many streamed to South Florida’s airports.

But early Wednesday morning, it was hard to get a seat on a plane going anywhere. Seats that were available still for purchase at Florida airports were often exorbitantly expensive, in the range of $2,000.

Some of those who were leaving said modern technology, and modern communications, helped inform their decisions – and made them easier.

“Back in the 1800s, people wouldn’t have had a warning,” said Renee Gray, flying with her husband, Mitch, to their home in Nashville after evacuating from Islamorada, in the Florida Keys, at 4 a.m.

“Today we’ve got warnings, and we have to take advantage of that.”

Meanwhile, in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katia has prompted a hurricane warning in Mexico’s Veracruz state. The National Hurricane Center said little overall motion on the storm was expected though late Thursday.

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NEW YORK – Sunil Pendse, who owns and operates Shezan Restaurant and Banquet Hall on Oak Tree Road in Edison, New Jersey, was attacked by a pair of armed robbers looking to steal some cash, on Tuesday, September 5.

According to a CBS New York report, Pendse was doing some paperwork at the restaurant when he heard a noise at around 5:30 p.m. and walked to the front and saw that two men had entered the restaurant, demanding money.

One man smacked him in the face with the back of a gun, twice, while the other threw him into the table and on the floor, where he almost blacked-out.

Pendse told News India Times that he gave them whatever money was in the cash register but they wanted more and asked him where the safe was, so he led them to the office in the back while they continued to beat him up.

“They were pushing me. I was holding the chair. They pushed me, so I fall down. The computer, just like over there, they smashed. They were making a scene,” Pendse told ABCNews.

“Two guys, first he hit me, then the second guy. One guy was pointing the gun. This guy, he had the knife. They hold me by the neck, and they keep beating me and put me in there,” he added.

The two men kept saying “don’t move, I’ll kill you,” as they forced him down the hall, into his office and demanded him to open the safe.

One of the men stabbed him in his right arm and they ran off with the $1,500 in cash, his watch, and his wedding band, locking him inside the office with an extension cord while they searched the rest of the building for more money.

“Every time, they were using the word ‘we’ll kill you, we’ll shoot you, show me the money.’ “Lucky I had the money I had. Thank God I’m alive,” he said.

He then laid in silence for about five to 10 minutes and prayed for the men to leave before he called 911.

Pendse spent Tuesday night in the hospital and reopened his business on Wednesday; he now plans to install surveillance cameras in the restaurant.

Police are still trying to find the suspects and anyone with information is urged to call police.

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The Vermont Gurdwara in Los Angeles, California, also known as Hollywood Sikh Temple, was vandalized last week with hate messages scrawled on its walls, including one calling for “nuking” Sikhs.

A witness, Karna Ray who was visiting from New York, confronted the vandal and filmed him on his cell phone as he started walking away from the temple’s wall without any explanation.

“I said I was going to call the police on him at which point he said he felt threatened and said, ‘I will slit your throat,'” Ray told NBC.

He then posted the video on Facebook and wrote that the vandal was threatening him with a razor.

Ray told NBC that the hateful message left on the walls of Vermont Gurdwara counters everything the Sikh community stands for.

One member of the temple, Sarab Gil, hopes to invite the vandal to a service in the future so that he could experience what the community believes in.

“I would love to invite the person in the temple, make him, show him what he is missing,” Gil said.

“This particular incident isn’t a matter of swastikas and ‘go home, ragheads,’ which we get sometimes. This seems to be a diatribe by someone who may or may not be mentally imbalanced,” said Sevadar Nirinjan Singh Khalsa.

Khalsa is working with the Los Angeles Police Department to help the investigation.

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Baywatch director, Seth Gordon’s upcoming Hollywood movie will be about Indian American lawyer Vanita Gupta’s 1999 case of exposing police corruption and discrimination in Tulia, Texas and released 39 African Americans who were falsely convicted on drug charges, in 2003.

“I’m excited to bring this important and poignant story to a wider audience, to call attention to what happened in Tulia, and to showcase the incredible and heroic work Vanita Gupta did for its citizens,” Gordon said while announcing the film, according to Hollywood Reporter.

“Vanita Gupta is the daughter of an immigrant and a very inspiring and strong woman,” said Mubina Rattonsey, whose Los Angeles-based company is producing the film and who has been associated with projects in Bollywood.

“Tulia is her story, and for me, it represents what America stands for — the coming together of minds and hearts for justice. Vanita turned the case around; she won it…I was simply fascinated by her will to do the impossible,” she added.

But there is no word on who will play Gupta’s role.

According to a Hindustan Times report, Gupta headed the civil rights division of the justice department in the Obama administration and was the deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, prior to her appointment.

She now heads the DC-based Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, emerging as a leading critic of President Donald Trump and his administration on civil rights issues such as the handling of the Charlottesville race clashes.

In the case in Tulia, police officer Tom Coleman had no wire-taps, no seizures or independent corroboration of his so-called drug buys and the mostly white jury convicted the 39, sentencing them to 20 years in jail and in one case, more than 300.

The Hindustan Times report also included that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a group focused on ensuring civil rights for all, originally gave the case to its Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF), which in turn gave it to Gupta, who had joined the organization straight out of law school.

“Vanita convened and led the legal team representing the defendants in post-conviction proceedings,” the LDF said in a summary of the case on its website, adding that she and her team proved that “Coleman’s misconduct, which was not challenged during the trials, was egregious and that the convictions were completely unfounded.”

In 2003, a Texas judge concluded that Coleman was not credible and state prosecutors cleared each of the convictions, the defendants were pardoned by then governor Rick Perry and Coleman was charged and convicted of perjury.

However, Gupta thought that wasn’t enough and initiated a civil rights action on behalf of the wrongly convicted, who had been in jail for more than three years.

She eventually secured $6 million dollars in the settlement.

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NEW YORK – Indian American designer Tina Tandon showed off her “Fall and Winter 2017/2018” line on Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 230 5th Rooftop Bar, at the New York Fashion Week.

The fashion line started off with red and maroon colored clothes reflecting the typical color of the Fall season and continued onto purple, which linked the reds with the blue color clothes that ended the line, highlighting the cold temperatures of the Winter season.

Tandon started her fashion career with designers Escada and Christian Lacroix and has now completed 10 years in the fashion industry.

Tandon was born in the U.S., spent her early childhood in India and grew up in North Carolina before moving to New York, where she was exposed to a broad spectrum and concepts of fashion and knew that she would want a career in it from an early age.

When living in India, she had accompanied her mother once to visit a family tailor for some custom-made outfits and she thoroughly enjoyed the process, becoming well-acquainted with various fabrics, cuts, designs and embellishments.

When she returned to the U.S., she started taking fashion design courses in high school and won recognition for her work and decided to follow her dream.

Tandon then received a scholarship to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City and graduated Summa Cum Laude, receiving many awards, including the Presidential Scholars award, from the school’s faculty and top industry professionals, including Jay Baker, the former President of Kohls.

Her fashion line and company, T.Tandon, is a Contemporary RTW line that is known for its feminine, sophisticated, luxuriously draped and adorned collections.

T.Tandon’s silhouettes are modern with a hint of vintage, blending the two to create newly inspired classic pieces that are timeless, yet effortlessly modern and chic.

Their pieces are designed to be comfortable, practical, and versatile, while also being style-forward and novel as well as eco and socially-conscious.

T.Tandon’s clothes are popular among celebrities as well including Stephanie Pratt of The Hills fame, Katrina Bowden of 30 Rock fame, Jules Kirby of High Society and NYC Socialite fame, Jill Zarin of NY Socialite fame and one of The Real Housewives of NY, Anna Maria Perez of Hannah Montana fame, Maria Menounous of Access Hollywood fame, Pooja Kumar of Bollywood Hero and HBO fame, Reshma Shetty of Royal Pains fame and many others.

Tandon works mainly with natural fabrics, such as cottons, modals, linens, silks, and wools, and every season 85- 90% of her collections are made of those fabrics.

She also donates a percentage of the profits to charities benefitting underprivileged children in impoverished areas in India, so they may not be forced into child labor and works with women organizations that help provide livelihood and empowerment to women in small towns and villages.

The event was in collaboration with The Nylon Project which is a new initiative started by Jordana Guimaraes and is aimed to unify and encourage positive change within the metropolitan and the homeless community.

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NEW YORK – The Illustrated Mahabharata – The Definitive Guide to India’s Greatest Epic (hardcover; 512 pages; $50; DK) is the hefty coffee table book which you’ll really read, and re-read, will be cherished by generations. Fair warning: if you’re not of generous disposition, don’t place it as a centerpiece when guests descend; the engaging book makes it worthwhile to ignore blasé conversations, instill desire to borrow, take home, perhaps make it a keepsake.

With more than 500 stunning color images drawn from various sources showcasing India’s varied art forms, the lavishly produced book encapsulates the complete stories from all the 18 chapters of India’s greatest epic which by popular consensus was first authored by the Sage Vyasa, as well as shlokas and their translation from the Bhagavad Gita and the Harivamsha.

The images in the book, wrapped in a textured jacket with gold foil, includes selection of bas relief, sculptures, lithographs, apart from paintings in different styles, including Rajasthani and Moghul miniatures, as well as illustrations from the Razmnama, the Persian retelling of the epic commissioned by Emperor Akbar; Chitrakathi, a folk painting style from the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh; Kalighat from West Bengal, and Madhubani, a folk art from Bihar and Nepal, and Kerala mural style with frescoes inspired from mythology, among others.

What’s really unique about the book, however, is the readability factor. Visually compelling, the book breaks down rich narratives heavy with mythology and intricately woven stories-within-stories, into easily assimilated form; it’s highly entertaining reading for adults, and children as well.

One is hooked after reading the first few pages. It’s hard to put it down, unless the arms start to get tired holding it up.

The publishers, DK (Dorling Kindersley), a division of Penguin Random House, have in the past brought out Illustrated Bible as well. This edition of the Mahabharata is a notable achievement, considering the painstaking compilation and production took 11 months, with as many as 15 people working on it.

The book has been guided mainly by Bibek Debroy’s 10 volumes of the Mahabharata, and popular Indian author and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik’s adaptation ‘Jaya’. Debroy, an eminent economist, is currently one of three members of the Niti Aayog, a policy think tank of the Indian government.

The Illustrated Mahabharata does a great job of making uninitiated readers familiar with the main characters in the humungous epic which has nearly 100,000 shlokas, by detailed family trees.

Debroy notes in his foreword: “Despite several retellings floating around, there is nothing quite like the present illustrated retelling of the epic. This one is captivating and different because it draws on all those cultural strands, past and contemporary, to enrich the story.”

It’s time to move on from those Amar Chitra Katha comics you bought for your child, traveling to India. The Illustrated Mahabharata is worth every penny of its $50 price.

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During the British Raj in India, there lived a clerk in Agra who assisted the Jail Superintendent John Tyler in organizing a trip for 34 prisoners and chose carpets and other artifacts for Queen Victoria of England, but what many do not know is that he loved the queen so dearly and admired her for who she was.

To show her gratitude and appreciation, the British government gifted a “mohar” or a symbolic coin to the queen, which was presented to her by Abdul Karim himself who travelled all the way to London for the occasion.

During the presentation of the “mohar,” Abdul was advised not to make eye contanct with the queen however, his fondness for her urged him to do so and he caught the queen’s eye, who too met his gaze creating an immediate attraction which grew into affection at a banquet ceremony thereafter when he kissed her feet, beginning a unique love story.

From then on, Abdul became the queen’s personal assistant, teaching her Urdu and travelling with her wherever she went; but he was no servant to her, in fact she grew fond of him now and allowed him to be a member of the royal household.

Though, this fatal attraction between the two was not accepted by the remainder of the royal household, who did everything to get rid of him including telling the queen that he is uneducated and therefore not qualified to assist her in any legal matters.

They succeeded temporarily when Abdul returned to India, only to find out that the queen herself had ordered him to go and bring back his wife, upon hearing the news that he was married.

However, one night, the royal household made her realize that she has made a grave mistake in appointing Abdul as her “Munshi” because he is Muslim, and the Muslims had issued a “fatwah” against her for using animal fat as grease on their ammunition.

She tells him to leave immediately but the lonely queen couldn’t seem to live with that guilt and ordered him to stay, serving her till her last breath, after which he is kicked out and sent back to India.

This unique relationship between the Queen of England and her Indian confidant is beautifully portrayed by Judi Dench and Ali Fazal in the film Victoria & Abdul, directed by Stephen Frears and based on the book Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant written by Shrabani Basu.

The film captures the true essence of the relationship which even today seems odd, yet both actors appropriately illustrate it.

Once returning to India, Abdul sat by the queen’s statue shown by the Taj Mahal, everyday and kept teaching her Urdu for nine years until he joined her in heaven.

His story though was not discovered until 2010 because all of his memories with Queen Victoria were destroyed in England and he had only managed to keep one picture of him and the queen in which one can see that the affection the two had for each other was beyond class, race and religion and most certainly one of a kind.

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President Donald Trump announced Sept. 7 that he is nominating an Indian-American to a high position in the State Department.

Manisha Singh, an attorney by training from Florida is being nominated Assistant Secretary of State, Economic and Business Affairs.  She will have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Singh is chief counsel and senior policy advisor to U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan.  She is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs in the State Department and has served as deputy chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill  where she worked closely with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind).

She also has private sector experience multinational law firms and in an investment bank.

Singh earned an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from the American University Washington College of Law, a J.D. from the University of Florida College of Law and a B.A. from the University of Miami at the age of 19.  In addition, she studied at the University of Leiden Law School in the Netherlands.  She is licensed to practice law in Florida, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia and speaks fluent Hindi, according to a press release from the White House.

Singh was the first executive director of the Barer Institute for Law and Global Human Services at the University of Washington School of Law after serving as deputy assistant secretary at the State Department. The Barer Institute’s goal was to use lawyers as leaders in providing advice and solutions to accomplish humanitarian objectives, according to the website of the institution.

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HAVANA – Hurricane Irma menaced Cuba and the Bahamas on Friday as it drove toward Florida after lashing the Caribbean with devastating winds and torrential rain, killing 19 people and leaving a swathe of catastrophic destruction.

Florida Governor Rick Scott issued a stark warning to residents to get out if they were in evacuation zones. Irma is one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century.

“We are running out of time. If you are in an evacuation zone, you need to go now. This is a catastrophic storm like our state has never seen,” Scott told reporters, adding the storm’s effects would be felt from coast to coast.

Early on Friday, Irma was about 80 miles (125 km) northeast of Cuba’s northeastern coast and 450 miles (725 km) southeast of Miami. It pummeled the Turks and Caicos Islands after saturating the northern edges of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

The “extremely dangerous” storm was downgraded from a Category 5, the top of the scale of hurricane intensity, to a Category 4 early Friday but it was still carrying winds as strong as 150 miles per hour (240 km per hour), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an advisory at 8 a.m EDT (1200 GMT).

Irma hit the southeastern Bahamas on Friday, where it was forecast to bring storm surges as high as 20 feet (six meters) before brushing Cuba’s central northern coast and then slamming into southern Florida on Sunday.

Cuba, where the Communist government has traditionally made rigorous preparations when the island is threatened by storms, was at a near standstill as Irma began to drive up the northern coast from east to west offshore.

Schools and most businesses were closed, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated, and train, bus and domestic air services around the island were canceled. Airports were closing to international flights as conditions warranted.

Irma was forecast to move closer to land as it approached the center of Cuba later in the day and on Saturday, when it could seriously damage resorts on vulnerable keys. Tourists, and even the dolphins that entertain them, were evacuated. The storm was predicted to veer north, sparing western Cuba and Havana.

“DON’T BE COMPLACENT”

In several television interviews early Friday, Florida’s governor pleaded with residents to leave areas designated for evacuation, although he acknowledged frustration with buying gas and handling bumper-to-bumper traffic on the roads.

“We’re doing everything we can to get the fuel out,” to gas stations, including police escorts, Scott told ABC’s “Good Morning America” program.

Nearly one-third of all gas stations in Florida’s metropolitan areas were out of gasoline, according to Gasbuddy.com, a retail fuel price tracking service.

“Don’t be complacent. We’re not sure exactly where this is going to go,” he told CBS, adding that he expected to see 5-10 feet of storm surge.

Downtown Miami, under an evacuation order, appeared to have emptied out on Friday morning, with little traffic on the streets and public parking lots empty.

In Palm Beach, the waterfront Mar-a-Lago estate owned by U.S. President Donald Trump was ordered evacuated, media reported. Trump also owns property on the French side of St. Martin, a French-Dutch island devastated by the storm.

A mandatory evacuation on Georgia’s Atlantic coast was due to begin on Saturday, Governor Nathan Deal said.

The storm was expected to “devastate” part of the United States and officials were preparing a massive response, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said.

The storm comes two weeks after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas, claiming around 60 lives and causing property damage estimated at as much as $180 billion in Texas and Louisiana.

U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday as investors assessed the financial impact of Harvey and tracked Irma. The three major Wall Street indexes were on track to end the week lower, with many economists forecasting that third-quarter GDP will take a hit due to the hurricanes.

Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said the state was far more prepared now than when it was hit by devastating Hurricane Andrew in 1992. He also noted that local, state and federal authorities appeared to be more coordinated after learning the lessons of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

“I think Florida is prepared, but when you get 155 plus mile per hour winds nobody is going to be prepared for that kind of destruction,” Nelson told cable news channel MSNBC.

IRMA’S PATH OF DESTRUCTION

Irma ravaged a series of small islands in the northeast Caribbean, including Barbuda, St. Martin and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, flattening homes and hospitals and ripping down trees.

A Reuters witness described the roof and walls of a solidly built house shaking hard as the storm rocked the island of Providenciales.

Even as they came to grips with the scale of the destruction resident of the islands hit hardest by Irma faced the threat of another major storm, Hurricane Jose. A hurricane hunter plane found that Jose had strengthened to a Category 4 storm, the NHC said on Friday. It was due to reach the northeastern Caribbean on Saturday.

The death toll from Irma has risen as emergency services got access to remote areas.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Friday nine people were killed, at least seven were missing, and 112 others were injured after the hurricane crashed into St. Barthelemy and St. Martin.

Four people died in the U.S. Virgin islands, a government spokesman said, and a major hospital was badly damaged by the wind. A U.S. amphibious assault ship arrived in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Thursday and sent helicopters for medical evacuations from the destroyed hospital.

A man was reported missing after trying to cross a river in Haiti’s Central Plateau region.

The eastern Caribbean island of Barbuda was reduced to “rubble,” and one person died, Prime Minister Gaston Browne said. In the British overseas territory of Anguilla, another person was killed and the hospital and airport were damaged, emergency service officials said.

Three people were killed in Puerto Rico and around two-thirds of the population had lost electricity, Governor Ricardo Rossello said after Irma grazed the U.S. territory’s northern coast. A surfer was also reported killed in Barbados.

The storm passed just to the north of the island of Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It damaged roofs and caused flooding and power outages as it approached the impoverished Haitian side, but spared the island a direct hit.

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GURUGRAM – In a bid to improve Search experience for the Indian users, Google on Friday announced the launch of a revamped Feed in the Google app for Android and iOS devices.

The revamped Feed — now available globally after the initial success in the US — will use machine learning algorithms and scan your browsing history, compile relevant content and deliver personalised experience to you.

“The update would be rolled out over the weekend in the Google app for Android and iOS. It will be initially available in English and Hindi in India,” Shashi Thakur, Vice President (Engineering), Search, Google, told reporters at Google India office here via video conferencing from Mountain View, California.

The update would help users better tune the flow of news and information from the web to smartphone, enabling users to dig deeper on topics you’re passionate about.

The Feed can be accessed by updating and launching the Google app on your phone. It will display cards containing the latest highlights, top news, engaging videos, new music and stories about a user’s hobbies.

With the update, the users would see a new “Follow” button which he can tap to get regular updates from movies, sports teams, favorite bands or music artists, famous people, and more.

Google has also given the power into users’ hands. A user can also unfollow a topic or interest by tapping the given card in feed.

The new Feed will not only be based on a user’s interaction with Google but also factor trending topics in their chosen areas from around the world.

If a user is a photography enthusiast but is casually interested in fitness, the feed will reflect stories accordingly. Moreover, the Feed will continue to evolve based on users’ engagement with it.

“The Feed will also include information from diverse perspectives and multiple viewpoints. If you search for a movie, Feed will tell you about show timings at nearest theater, reviews and ratings of that particular movie,” Thakur said.

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NEW YORK – President Donald Trump’s initiative to scrap the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), within the next two years unless Congress passes a bill within the next six months to protect the more than 800,000 recipients from deportation, may actually turn out to be a positive development for illegal aliens brought here as children. Finally, there’s a chance for amnesty, get on a path to permanent residency and US citizenship, instead of being on tenterhooks every two years when they apply for a work permit, fear traveling overseas.

The DACA numbers are staggering: the Migration Policy Institute estimates that as of 2016, 1.3 million young adults ages 15 and older were immediately eligible to apply for DACA. The number rises to 1.7 million when including an additional 398,000 unauthorized immigrants who met all criteria but for high school graduation or current school enrollment.  These ‘Dreamers’ were all brought illegally to the US as infants, young children.

The South Asian community will be hit hard if deportations do indeed take place after March 5, 2018: according to advocacy organization South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a total of 5,500 Indian and Pakistani-origin DACA recipients are in danger of being evicted; 17,000 other Indians face the risk of deportation. A total of 27,000 Asian Americans are covered under DACA. Eighty percent of the 800,000 DACA recipients are Mexican.

Trump, however, is not immune to the broad criticism which has followed the announcement to end DACA. He gave assurance through a tweet – whatever that may be worth – that if Congress doesn’t act, he will again ‘revisit’ the issue: “Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do). If they can’t, I will revisit this issue!”

To be fair to Trump, his pitch to end to end DACA and curb illegal immigration was perhaps the single biggest motivation for his supporters to pitchfork him to the White House. He has kept his campaign promise. DACA was also in danger of being abruptly terminated if a proposed lawsuit by Attorney Generals of Texas and 10 others states to end DACA was successful in court. Trump evaded that lawsuit on the last day of its deadline.  He has given a lifeline to DACA recipients.

Five Indian American lawmakers, all Democrats, didn’t see it that way, though. They came down hard on the Trump administration.

“The consequences of this decision will be devastating. It will split up families, force young people back to countries they never knew, and cost our economy billions of dollars. It is heartless,” California Senator Kamala Harris, a likely contender in the 2020 presidential elections, said.

“The President’s decision undermines our nation’s values and is a cruel betrayal to the more than 800,000 young people, including more than 200,000 Californians, who have only ever known the United States of America as their home,” Harris said.

Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal pointed out Trump’s ‘hypocrisy’.

“After toying with their futures and raising their hopes with talk of his ‘big heart’, Donald Trump has shown exactly what his priorities are. He has once again sided with hate and xenophobia, putting in place a repeal that is cruel, inhumane and unjust,” Jayapal said.

“Let me be clear: Our immigrant brothers and sisters are here to stay. Not only are they welcome in our communities — they are essential to our communities. I will continue to fight alongside ‘dreamers’ and the immigrant rights movement,” she said.

Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi also slammed Trump’s decision, terming the move as “cruel”.

“Through this announcement, the President has made clear that he refuses to protect dreamers and so now Congress must. The administration’s cruel policy includes a six-month phase-out of the DACA program, and Congress must pass legislation to extend this program and protect ‘dreamers’,” Krishnamoorthi said.

“This issue is personal for me because I too was brought to the United States by my parents as a child. The hope for a better a life which carried my parents here was no different from that of the parents of ‘dreamers’, and generations of immigrants before,” he said.

California Congressman Ami Bera reiterated the same sentiment.

“Children brought to the United States — through no fault of their own — deserve our compassion. These children have passed background checks and are already contributing to our economy as productive residents,” Bera said. “Detaining and deporting children is not only morally wrong, it doesn’t make economic sense. I urge the administration to reverse this decision immediately,” Bera said.

Bera’s compatriot from California, Congressman Ro Khanna also was forthcoming to help the ‘Dreamers’.

“We must safeguard the livelihood of ‘dreamers’ and provide these inspiring young people and their courageous parents a pathway to citizenship,” Khanna said.

While it may seem that there is broad consensus for a bipartisan bill to help the Dreamers and reform immigration rules, the fact remains that Congress has failed miserably for over 16 years to pass a bill to fix the issue.

Also, Democrats will not let Trump and the Republicans savor victory over the DACA issue; political football may be in the works.

The last thing Democrats want is for American voters to admire Trump for keeping to his election promise, and Republicans to get the credit for coming to the rescue of DACA (and in turn Hispanic voters). Democrats instead want the DACA issue to be the downfall of the Trump administration. If a bill does go through, Democrats will want total credit for it.

That wall that Trump wanted to build on the Mexican border has started taking shape right on Capitol Hill. The fate of the Dreamers will hinge on how many Democrats and Republicans are willing to clamber over that wall to the other side.

One thing’s for sure: the American public have great sympathy for Dreamers, are overwhelmingly in favor of letting them stay on, not be deported.

According to a new Politico/Morning Consult survey, 58% of respondents think recipients of DACA should be allowed to stay and become citizens, while just 15% said they should be deported. Eighteen percent say they should be allowed to stay and become legal citizens. Also, two-thirds of Trump voters think Dreamers should be allowed to stay, while only 26 percent feel they should be forced to leave.

There is no doubt DACA recipients are hardworking, valuable contributors to society. They get no federal assistance, pay taxes, have a clean record, and have to be enrolled in school, or be honorably discharged from the services, to be even considered for their status.

A FastCompany.com report, citing data from the Pew Research Center, University of California San Diego academics, UnitedWeDream, National Immigration Law Center and Center for American Progress, said 95% of DACA recipients are working or in school; 54% of DACA recipients recently bought their first car, according to a 2016 survey; 12% bought a home; 22% of DACA recipients work in education and health services, the highest of any other industry, according to a 2016 survey.

The stories of Dreamers all have similarities.

Market Watch reported the case of Hina Naveed, who is working as a nurse, to pay for her tuition at law school.

“I may have to make the decision to give up my dream,” she said.

Because Naveed got no assistance for tuition, it took her eight years to earn her four-year college degree, despite being at the top of her graduating class in high school, because she had to work at the same time.

DACA recipients “really have to work twice as hard in some cases to be able to have access to education,” Maritza Solano, the director of education at CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization, said.

Forbes reported on two Dreamers of Indian-origin whose future is in jeopardy if the DACA issue is not fixed.

Ruhi (name changed), a biology major at a university in Texas, was brought to the US after she was diagnosed with a rare brain disease as a child. Her parents and she stayed on.

Adit (name changed), a computer programmer based in San Francisco, spoke of how his family was duped out of a significant chunk of their savings by “a set up that promised to get the family green cards, but turned out to be a hoax.” They sought asylum but their case was eventually denied years after it was filed, by which time they had just about managed to create a life for themselves in the U.S., with “nothing to return to” in either Fiji or India.

WTHR.com reported on a Indian student at Purdue University, freshman Akanksha Guruvayur, who moved with her family to New Jersey four years ago.

“It is achieving my own goals as well as like my family’s dreams of becoming an engineer,” said Guruvayur, “because my parents and my family as well really want me to be an engineer and to be successful. I feel like being in America and studying at one of the best universities in the country is what it means to me to be a DREAMer. The United States is the place that I want to live in. I want to work here. I want to study here. That’s particularly the reason why my family moved to America, because my parents wanted me to get a good college education.”

She added: “If this threatens my status here and my ability to study here, this really concerns me because I need to think about what I would do if I had to be sent back to India and where I would go for college. It scares me that I might not be able to have this opportunity in a few years based on this decision.”

News India Times was part of a media teleconference organized by New America Media with a Dreamer from Mexico, Luis, 27, who was brought the US when he was six months old. He worked full time during high school and college, and is now 9 months sway from graduation.

Luis recounted, almost breaking down in tears, detailed how his brother, father and mother were deported one after the other, over the years. DACA helped him stay on. His brother was later murdered in Mexico in front of his four-year-old daughter.

“I currently have no way to visit my parents and the daughter of my brother who I have never met,” he said.

The DACA announcement by Trump has done away with issuing advance parole papers which allowed recipients to travel overseas, and return.

Edwidge Danticat, author of many books, including, most recently, “The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story,” writing in the New Yorker, had this to say: “For those of us who know Dreamers, who live with or near them, who work with them, who love them, it’s puzzling that their value to this country is being so casually discarded. The Dreamers I know have the drive of pioneers. Their determination is born out of urgency…Taking away DACA is not just a loss for Dreamers; it is this country’s loss as well.”

Ending DACA, say reports, would cause the United States to lose $24.6 billion in tax revenue and $460.3 billion from the national gross domestic product over the next 10 years.

However, as The Washington Post reported, illegal immigration is a huge problem for the US. In 2015 alone, more than 400,000 foreign visitors stayed in the United States beyond their visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Robert Warren, a demographer and senior visiting fellow at the Center for Migration Studies, estimates that about 50 percent of the 1.258 million people eligible for DACA are visa overstays.

There may be help coming for DACA recipients sooner than they expected, though: 15 states and the District of Columbia are suing the Trump administration over its decision to end DACA program.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who challenged successfully the travel ban on Muslims, is again taking charge on the DACA issue.

“It’s outrageous. It is. It’s outrageous. I’m not going to put up with it,” Ferguson said at a morning news conference in Seattle, and called it a “dark time for our country.”

Ferguson said he had one question, reported the Seattle Times: “If the overwhelming majority of Dreamers were Caucasian, does anybody really think this president would take the action he took yesterday?”

Comedian Chelsea Handler too raged on similar lines.

The comedian addressing DACA recipients, said: “We’re sorry for making it clear that white supremacists and Nazis are welcome in this country, while young hardworking immigrants brought here as children are not.”

While taunts are being traded daily and protests breaking out all over the country, over the DACA issue, the issue finally is in the hands of Congress.

Suman Raghunathan, Executive Director of SAALT, put it succinctly: “America’s values are founded on the ideal that all people are created equal and deserve justice. Our current patchwork of immigration policies and programs is broken, and we demand Congress does its job to craft a commonsense immigration process that creates a roadmap to citizenship for aspiring new Americans. This is the only way to align our immigration laws with the values Americans hold dear.”

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