New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issue Press Statement in New Delhi on Jan 15, 2018. (Photo: IANS)
Many Indian-American entrepreneurs have announced the launch of several initiatives to enhance the technology collaborations and strengthen the relationship between India, Israel and the U.S., according to PTI.
According to PTI, Indian American Dennis Mehta of Pennsylvania has announced the launch of a $50 million trilateral investment fund to bring innovative Israeli technologies to the Indian market, while venture capitalist and entrepreneur Desh Deshpande is working with the MassChallenge incubator to fund several Indian startups to receive in-house guidance from MassChallenge mentors in Israel.
The idea of this tech triangle was brought up by venture capitalist, philanthropist and founder of Indiaspora, M.R. Rangaswami, according to PTI.
According to PTI, the concept was presented to both Prime Ministers Narendra Modi as well as Benjamin Netanyahu when the Indiaspora delegation visited New Delhi earlier this year while Netanyahu was there.
“Through our visit to New Delhi, Indiaspora continued our leading role in catalyzing trilateral collaboration in technology, entrepreneurship and investment between USA, India and Israel,” Rangaswami told PTI.
Vinny Gupta, an Indiaspora member from Ohio, also signed three MoUs with Israel’s largest water utility to bring water sanitation technologies to India, according to PTI.
“Indiaspora put together an event and seminars with the most qualified folks from USA, Israel and India,” Gupta told PTI, adding that it provided the perfect opportunity to attend events where the Israeli and Indian Prime Ministers were present.
According to PTI, the U.S. based Israel-India Technology (I-IT) Group has also announced its launch in India which is aimed at focusing on bringing Israeli technology to Indian markets through U.S. financial resources and expertise in doing deals in both countries.
NEW YORK —A team of scientists at Stanford University, including Indian American researcher Dr. Shrestha Basu Mallick, has shown how nanotechnology can be used to create crystalline silicon thin-film solar cells that are more efficient at capturing solar energy.
The discovery can reduce the cost of solar energy production globally, they noted.
Mallick, working with her advisers Dr. Mark Brongersma and Dr. Peter Peumans, developed a new method of producing a cheaper and more efficient solar cell.
The team used optical modeling and electrical simulations to show that a thin-film crystalline silicon solar cell with a 2-D nanostructure generated three times as much photo current as an unstructured cell of the same thickness.
This is because the nano-structured surface traps incoming light more effectively causing it to spend more time within the silicon material.
The longer the light spends inside the solar cell, the greater its chance of getting absorbed.
“Light absorption in crystalline silicon solar cells can be significantly enhanced by nanostructuring and this reduces the thickness of silicon required,” said Mallick. “This is important because it helps countries be competitive against imported cells and paves the way for new solar applications such as flexible or transparent cells.”
The discovery reveals a simple method to improve the efficiency of all silicon solar cells.
The work was published in the journal Optics Express and has garnered close to 200 citations including multiple book chapters.
Donald Trump Jr. thrusts his fist after speaking at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio U.S. July 19, 2016. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
NEW DELHI
The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is making what’s been dubbed an unofficial visit to India to promote his family’s real estate projects. But he’s also planning to deliver a foreign policy speech on Indo-Pacific relations at an event with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Beginning Tuesday, the junior Trump will have a full schedule of meet-and-greets with investors and business leaders throughout India where the Trump family has real estate projects – Mumbai, the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon and the eastern city of Kolkata.
Indian newspapers have been running full-page, glossy advertisements hyping his arrival and the latest Trump Tower project under the headline: “Trump is here – Are You Invited?” The ads also invited home buyers to plunk down a booking fee (about $38,000) to “join Mr. Donald Trump Jr. for a conversation and dinner.” Public relations executives working with two local developers arranging the Trump dinner declined to give specifics about the event.
During the visit, the 40-year-old Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, will take a break from his private promotional tour to give an address on “Reshaping Indo- Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation” at a global business summit on Friday evening, co-sponsored by the Economic Times newspaper. Modi will also speak at the summit on the topic of “Preparing India for the Future.”
News that the Trump Organization would be offering buyers in the Trump Tower the chance to meet the president’s son sparked criticism of potential conflict of interest, and the fact that Trump Jr. will be giving a foreign policy speech while on a private business trip complicates the matter further, ethics expert said.
The senior Trump did not divest himself of his businesses when he was elected president. Rather, he turned the day-to-day operations over to his older sons, Don Jr. and Eric, to run. Eric Trump told The Washington Post last year that “the company and policy and government are completely separated. We have built an unbelievable wall in between the two.”
Watchdog groups disagree.
“Trump’s company is literally selling access to the president’s son overseas,” said Jordan Libowitz, the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is frequently critical of the first family. “For many people wanting to impact American policy in the region, the cost of a condo is a small price to pay to lobby one of the people closest to the president, far away from watchful eyes.”
Critics have often complained of the high cost of Secret Service agents accompanying the Trump children on private business trips, straining the agency’s budget. The Trump Organization’s spokesman did not return calls or emails requesting comment.
Amit Sharma, a spokesman for the Gurgaon developer, said that they had sold apartments worth nearly $70 million since the Gurgaon towers project launched in early January. The buildings, where flats run from $780,000 to $1.6 million, have private elevator service, in-residence catering and an indoor swimming pool.
Trump Jr.’s tour of India, Sharma said, is a chance to “celebrate the entire exercise.”
Along with the Trump Tower Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) in Gurgaon, projects include two residential towers in the western city of Pune, towers in Mumbai and Kolkata and a planned office tower in Gurgaon, which is also known as Gurugram. The Trump Organization has more business entities in India than in any other foreign country, financial filings show, with licensing bringing in estimated payments of $1.6 million to $11 million since 2014.
Later this week, Trump Jr. will travel to Mumbai to open the demo unit at the golden-facade Trump Tower that’s being built by the family development firm of Mangal Prabhat Lodha, a state legislator in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. That relationship has also sparked concern about potential conflict of interest. As with most of its foreign deals, the Trump family licenses its name to the projects, collecting hefty royalty fees but avoiding risky investments.
“Part of the deal was that Trump would come and do promotions every couple of years,” said an employee of the Lodha Group, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The election changed that, he said, meaning the kids now have to step in.
“Ideally we’d have preferred Ivanka,” he said, referring to the president’s eldest daughter, who is now an adviser to her father. “She has a better public image. But it makes sense for Donald Trump Junior to do it.”
– – –
Swati Gupta and Vidhi Doshi contributed to this report in New Delhi.
A council member in northern Texas is rejecting calls for his resignation over a series of anti-Muslim and anti-black Facebook posts, including one saying that President Donald Trump should ban Islam in U.S. schools.
Tom Harrison, a city council member in Plano, Texas, is accused of sharing a post from a Facebook page titled “Joined Hands Across America For Trump.” The meme, which showed a young girl wearing a hijab, read: “Share if you think Trump should ban Islam in American schools.”
The post sparked a public outcry, with Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere calling for Harrison’s removal from the council and the council voting Sunday to publicly admonish Harrison.
“Mr. Harrison’s conduct is unbefitting a council member to serve our diverse community. I find this Facebook post abhorrent and believe this is a stain on our city and does not represent who we are,” LaRosiliere said Monday afternoon in a statement to The Washington Post, saying that Harrison had refused to step down over the incident.
The council voted 7 to 1 to censure Harrison, which the mayor called “the only course of action available to the council.” He said that Harrison was the only dissenting vote.
The mayor said the city council had learned about several “equally offensive” posts from Harrison and called a special council meeting over the weekend to address them. One post reportedly read, “In the 19th century, all slave owners were Democrats. In the 21st century, all slave owners are Muslims. Their allies are the Democrats.”
Another showed a picture of President Lyndon B. Johnson and read: “Black children born without a father in the home rate pre LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ welfare system in 1964 = 7%. Black children born without a father in the home rate post LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ 2014 = 73%. Hey liberals, how’s your ‘Great Society’ working out for the black family?”
Amid the backlash, an apology was posted from Harrison’s Facebook page, according to ABC affiliate WFAA.
It read:
“I want to sincerely apologize to the Plano Muslim Community for the unintentional hurt I caused by reposting something on my personal Facebook page that wrongfully implied I am anti-Muslim. My intent on inputting this on my personal Facebook page was to emphasize that Christianity is not the only religion being targeted for exclusion in our public school. It was not meant as a personal attack against the Islamic faith. As a Christian, it is my belief that all should be free to worship as they choose, but we live in a time where any practice of religious expression in public schools is rarely tolerated. My hope is that due to the rightful negative response to my post, that it will spark a renewed discussion about all religions and their place in our public schools. My other regret is that my personal action has reflected poorly on the City of Plano. My action was personal in nature, but I should have remembered this past Monday night’s Council discussion . . .. none of us are ever truly off duty. None of us are perfect, and we will all be judged one day by the highest authority. Until then, I ask for forgiveness within the community and acceptance of my sincere apology.”
The post appears to have been removed.
During Sunday’s council meeting, Harrison said that although he had apologized, he would not resign.
“I want to assure the citizens of Plano, I am not xenophobic. I am not a bigot. I am not a racist. What I am is someone who was elected, told people I would do a job for everyone in Plano,” he said to a clashing chorus of boos and applause.
Harrison could not immediately be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
Plano, a Dallas suburb, is about 25 miles from Irving, a city that has been at the center of anti-Muslim controversies. Nearly 67 percent of Plano’s nearly 260,000 residents are white, according to census data. Nearly 8 percent are black, and nearly 17 percent are Asian.
Plano Mayor Pro Tem Rick Grady expressed sorrow for the community, saying he was “heartbroken.” “It is the love of this community and the citizens in this community that I continue to serve. And I serve all of you, not some,” he said Sunday during the council meeting.
“I have fought my entire life for this hatred to go away, for this stereotype to go away, for bigotry to go away, and it seems to continue,” Grady said. “This kind of intolerant behavior, this insensitivity for people, needs to cease. And to continue to perpetuate it and to say I could sit on a board of directors and feel that way and then stand out in public and say I don’t, doesn’t jive.”
After calling for Harrison’s resignation, LaRosiliere said he could forgive him “as a member of a citizen of Plano, but not as a Plano City Council member.”
Steve Stoler, a spokesman for the city, said some people said that they planned to start a recall petition to remove Harrison from office, though he said the city had yet to receive signatures.
Photograph of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security logo.
The anticlimactic failure of U.S. immigration legislation last week sent senators scrambling for fallback options to avoid the deportation of young people who arrived in the country as children.
But amid upcoming fiscal deadlines, congressional election campaigns and a stubborn stalemate over legal immigration restrictions, none of the plans so far are enticing either side as the clock ticks toward expiration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that President Donald Trump has ordered to an end.
“What I expect is that DACA is going to expire and people will start losing their work permits,” said Mark Krikorian, who runs the Center For Immigration Studies, a group that seeks to cut immigration levels to the U.S. “There’ll be a non-zero number of DACAs taken into custody and removed. So we’ll have to see how that plays out politically.”
The courts have put Trump’s March 5 cutoff deadline on hold and a verdict may be pushed to June if the Supreme Court accepts the case on an expedited basis. That’s prompted another flurry of proposals in the Senate, none of which have any clear path to move forward.
Republican Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, Rob Portman of Ohio and Jerry Moran of Kansas proposed to give dreamers legal status without citizenship alongside $25 billion for border security, while Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., suggested extending their work permits for three years.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 GOP leader, said a potential vehicle for a DACA solution looms in the form of a massive 2018 fiscal year spending bill that must clear Congress by March 23 to avert a third government shutdown this year.
“I’d rather have a permanent bill, but if we can’t do that maybe we’ll do something shorter,” he said. “I don’t see it getting dedicated floor time, if there can be some negotiation leading up to the omnibus perhaps there can be some temporary provision, which to me is not great but that’s kinda where we are.”
In the House, meanwhile, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., has refused to consider any legislation that doesn’t have Trump’s full backing and has made no commitment to bring any plan up for a vote.
A creeping fatalism is setting in among some Democrats.
“People need to be very clear in their minds that this issue is not going to get fixed as long as Republicans control Congress,” said Adam Jentleson, who worked for former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “This is just the way it is.”
The ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth, said trying to tie an immigration measure to a March 23 funding bill to force the issue would backfire. “Clearly the American people, at least by the polling, thought it was more important to keep the government open than to deal with the dreamers,” he said in an interview. “You don’t want sympathy for the dreamers to be damaged, which I think there’s a potential for that.”
The Trump administration gave no sign it was ready to reopen negotiations. After the Senate failed to move ahead on any immigration legislation, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders blamed Democrats, saying in a statement they were “held hostage by the radical left in their party, which opposes any immigration control at all.”
The crux of the Senate stalemate is about legal immigration. Democrats acquiesced to Trump’s demand for $25 billion for border security, but they’ve stood firm against his calls to eliminate the ability of U.S. citizens to sponsor siblings, parents and adult children for green cards – at least in the context of a DACA fix. Trump has refused to support bipartisan measures without cuts to what he calls “chain migration,” and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has stood by him.
What happens next?
“I have no clue. I really don’t,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who co-sponsored a bipartisan compromise that failed 54-45 after Trump and his aides made an all-out effort to kill it.
When asked whether he thinks DACA recipients — many of whom aren’t familiar with the countries their parents brought them from — will be deported if Congress takes no action, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, a lead author of the compromise, said “Ask the president.”
Congress is off this week, and McConnell is planning to move on to confirming judicial and executive branch nominees when it returns. Any future effort to address immigration, including a pared-back version, is likely to face the same combustible political mix that brought down last week’s Senate proposals.
Republicans have a bigger political incentive to dig in on immigration than do Democrats. A full 62 percent of Republican voters said the issue should be a top priority for Trump and Congress, compared with just 39 percent of Democrats surveyed in a Jan. 10-15 poll by the Pew Research Center.
Hard-line immigration stances catapulted Trump to the Republican nomination and the presidency, putting intense pressure on his party to produce on the issue in a way that appeals to his base. Shortly before his election, the Pew Center found that 79 percent of registered voters backing him saw illegal immigration as a “very big problem.” Smaller percentages in the Oct. 25-Nov. 8, 2016 poll named other issues such as terrorism or jobs for working-class Americans.
GOP voter signals to Republicans are reflected in the way the immigration debate took shape in the Senate, with much higher demands from the Republican side than in 2013 when a Democratic-led chamber was able to easily clear a comprehensive bipartisan immigration bill.
The 2013 measure included a pathway to legal status for 11 million undocumented immigrants, paired with a $46 billion border security plan. The measure also had a host of other immigration law changes, including an end to a diversity visa lottery and limits on family-based immigration that barred citizens from sponsoring siblings and some married sons and daughters for permanent residence.
This time, the trade-off of restricting legal immigration was in return for helping a much smaller group of immigrants, about 1.8 million dreamers. The push by Trump and many Republicans for an end to the diversity visas and new limits on sponsorship to only spouses and minor children were unpalatable to many Democrats on a narrower measure.
GOP leaders are struggling as it is to come up with enough support for Trump’s plan. Only 39 senators on Thursday supported Trump’s favored package, including just three Democrats — Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Manchin, all of whom are facing re-election contests this November in states won handily by Trump. Some GOP conservatives — including John Barrasso of Wyoming, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma — objected to Trump’s favored legislation because it would give a path to citizenship to dreamers.
Krikorian said Speaker Ryan “dodged a bullet” with the failure of a DACA fix in the Senate. He argued that the failure frees Ryan to not act.
“The Democrats want this a lot more than Republicans do,” Krikorian said.
Varsha Naik and Navrang Dance Academy perform at Spotlight Productions’ ninth “Dancing in the Spotlight.” (Credit: Friday Films)
Navrang Dance Academy from New Jersey was the only Indian dance group to perform at Spotlight Productions’ ninth “Dancing in the Spotlight” show at Symphony Space Theater located on Broadway.
Varsha Naik, the director of Navrang Dance Academy, brought her 21 dancers to “Dancing in the Spotlight,” for the first time ever.
“For the first time ever, Varsha Naik joined our organization with Navrang Dance Academy. It was pure magic witnessing this Indian Group. They brought such a vibrant and colorful presence to our show. The stage was illuminated by their beautiful spirits, costumes and movement. The love of dance was quite visible and our audience of 800 spectators was left with memorable impressions of style and grace,” Spotlight Productions stated in a press release, adding that decided to incorporate exotic styles from around the world in honor of New York Fashion Week (NYFW).
(Credit: Arthur Lisenberg)
Spotlight says that they promote thought provoking numbers that revolve around high energy and creativity that is rooted with the attitude “I am living the life of my dreams,” in the elaborate productions each year which inspires everyone to bring their best and most authentic selves.
Naik too said that she is “living the life of my dreams.”
“It’s the dream for any dancer to perform on this prestigious stage and I find myself extremely lucky to have gotten the chance. I would like to thank Spotlight Production for organizing ‘Dancing in the Spotlight.’ Every piece of dance was spectacular, colorful and fascinating on this stage,” Naik said, adding that she was inspired by Bollywood choreographer Sandip Soparrkar, “I’d like to express my gratitude to him for encouraging me and my team to cross our limits and do something extraordinary. This was a huge opportunity for us to showcase one of the many Indian Dance forms and be a part of the bigger dance community.”
The Menlo Park Lion Club 16J held their fourth annual Love, Peace and Harmony art competition for children ages 3 to 16 on Sunday, February 18 at Lil’ Big Ones Childcare and Learning Center in South Plainfield.
The event was attended by Mayor South Plainfield Borough Matthew Anesh, Congresswoman Christin Faustini and PDG Lion Mahesh Chitnis.
Varsha Naik the former Chartered President of the club started the competition four years ago with only 20 children, while 30 children attended the following year and 45 the year after.
This year 100 children attended the competition, a target which was reached two weeks prior to the competition.
Four groups were formed including the group for special need children and it was mind blowing to see the thoughts of these young children, drawn out on paper.
Artists Dorothy Miele, Neelima Tandon and Dhwani Shah were the judges at the competition and they were amazed to see the different interpretation for the subject “Love, Peace & Harmony.”
Naik explained about Lions Club and the reason for introducing this activity four years ago.
Club President Prashant Karnik talked about the need of awareness of Love, Peace and Harmony within young children and mentioned that young brains perceive the same information as adults but interpret it differently.
Karnik hopes that next year the competition will see 200 children attending.
Our District Governor Lion Dawn and our 20 club members volunteered at this event to make it a very successful event.
Both Mayor Anesh and Congresswoman Christin agreed to help look for a larger venue next year to accommodate the targeted 200 participants.
The following children won the competition:
Age Range
5 to 8
9 to 11
12 to 16
First Place
Riddhma
Michel Thomas
Sanika Godbole
Second Place
Shreya
Aahana Dahiya
Kaitlyn Thomas
Third Place
Rivaan
Prisha Mangoo
Aarya Gadkari
Sahithi, a special needs girl, won a special award for participation in art contest.
A discussion held between seniors and youth at the Indo-American Seniors Center, Queens, N.Y., in early February, scheduled to be aired late February. (Photo: courtesy Mukund Mehta, president IASC)
An organization that says its goal is to “spread ideas of peace and harmony through creative video programs,” recently held a discussion on ‘Generation Gap and Technology’, and ‘Respect for Age or Knowledge?’
The meeting was organized by Insight for Creativity LLC, headed by president Ashok Vyas, and the Indo-American Senior Center in Queens in early February, according to an account by the president of IASC, Mukund Mehta. It was a “lively forum,” involving participation by two seniors and two youths for each episode, the press release from Mehta says. The participants for the first episode were Dr. Himanshu Pandya and Mukund Mehta, president of Indo-American Center, as seniors and Neil Zaveri and Rajni Raghunath as young participants. For the second segment, seniors Dr. Nilesh Soni and Gopi Udeshi faced off with Stony Brook University student Shamik Shah and software engineer Sapna Vyas.
A section of the audience at the Dialogue Generation Square held at the Indo-American Seniors Center, Queens, N.Y. early February. (Photo courtesy IASC)
The two-hour recorded segments will be aired on ITV as a part of the ongoing series ‘Insight Tonight with Ashok Vyas’ on Feb. 26 and 27 at 7:30 pm.
Vyas, who is also program director with ITV Gold, stressed the necessity of community events involving seniors and youths for better understanding and bridging the gap between generations, the press release said. Mehta said the inaugural discussion would provide impetus to undertake more social events in the future.
Insight for Creativity said it plans to organize ‘Dialogue Generation Square’ series every month in collaboration with various organizations. This will be available on Facebook and YouTube.
Senator Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, has taken up the cause of Indian children in the U.S. who are here legally but face the prospect of losing their legal status because of the decades it takes their parents to get a green card.
In a call-in press conference Feb. 20, Sen. Paul said he was pushing amendments to protect those who came as children legally to the U.S. in the controversial and contentious immigration reform bill that appears stalled in Congress.
While politicians, activists, religious leaders and the media have been advocating for giving legal status to those who entered the country illegally while they were children – and call them “dreamers” in reference to the popular theme of the American Dream – those who came here legally by following the laws will be subject to deportation.
“We should give equal importance to DALCA kids,” Paul said, referring to Deferred Action for Legal Childhood Arrivals, a situation facing many Indian youth. In contrast, those who came in illegally are covered by DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) an executive action taken by President Obama to give them a path to legalization.
“Once people are aware (of DALCA), they want to fix it. But all of it (debate) is focused on illegal immigrants,” right now, Sen. Paul said during the press conference organized by the Republican Hindu Coalition.
On how to draw national attention to the plight of DALCA kids, Sen. Paul said, “Seems the Congress will be more sympathetic to legal kids,” if they are made aware. He urged Indian-Americans to question Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, who are leading the Republican efforts in the Senate and House respectively, on what they are doing for DALCA kids. “There are not enough voices,” for this group, Paul said. “We’ve reached out, but the average Congressman has not heard enough,” Paul contended. That means going to Congress, talking to staff, sending emails. “All of these add up,” Paul said. But right now, most of the lobbying voices are coming from DACA immigrants, he noted.
Other members of Congress have also taken up the legal immigrant children’s issue. House Resolution 392, ” Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2017,” which was sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, in January 2017, calls for lifting the 7 percent country limit on green cards and has garnered the support of 315 members of Congress by Feb. 20, and is supported by advocacy and lobbying groups like Immigration Voice which is led by persons of Indian origin, whose stated goal is “working to alleviate the problems faced by legal high-skilled future Americans in the United States.”DALCA
And a “Dear Colleague” letter signed by members on both sides of the aisle, initiated by Sen. Paul, and Reps. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, and Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, calls for support of H.R. 392. It points to the plight of those H-1B visa holders, a large number of whom are Indian, waiting for decades for the green card.
“… as we endeavor in good faith to come up with a compromise that would remedy the effects caused by the repeal of the DACA program, we must not lose sight of the fact, that, under the current system, when H-1B visa holders from certain countries are forced to wait decades to receive a green card, the children of those H-1B holders can fall out of legal status and would not be covered by either DACA or the DREAM Act,” their Dear Colleague letter says. “Those children who came in legally through no fault of anyone will suddenly be faced with the choice of remaining illegally in the United States or leaving the only country they have even known as home. Passing H.R. 392 is the only way to help these legal residents, a group that includes some of the most talented young students in America’s schools today,” it adds.
Sen. Paul, during the press conference said, “We’ve been advocating for more employment-based immigration. … We are advocating for doubling that number,” he said, noting that EB visas numbered approximately 140,000.
In a Feb. 18, letter to President Donald Trump, RHC says there is a current green card backlog of 3.4 million family/chain applicants, and 1 million backlog of highly skilled applicants, waiting for green cards, and that the wait time is 3-4 years for the first category and about 60 to 70 years for the second. “And due to Country Limit Cap of 7% from any single country, like India, only 8400 or 0.787% went to high-skilled applicants including their dependents,” RHC contends in its letter. A side-effect of the wait time is that some 200,000 children, RHC says, who came legally with their parents would become illegal if their parents do not get green cards before these kids turn 21. The organization has launched an awareness campaign calling the 60-year wait “unacceptable” and demanding immediate green cards for “LEGAL Dreamers.”
The largest number of H-1B or high skilled visas are taken by Indian immigrants, thus it can be presumed that a large number of DALCA kids would be of Indian origin.
Dr. Venkatesh Sasthakonar of Nassau University Medical Center. (Photo: NUMC press release)
An Indian-American surgeon has been cleared of all criminal charges by a judge in Nassau County, Long Island, according to news reports.
Well-known surgeon Dr. Venkatesh Sasthakonar, was accused by a nurse of allegedly trying to strangle her with an ‘elastic cord’ following differences over some medical procedures. But a judge exonerated him Feb. 20, and police said there was insufficient evidence that any crime occurred after examining videos and talking to colleagues at the hospital. The 44-year old doctor, who, according to Newsday, is “a veteran weight-loss surgeon,” had consistently maintained his innocence. News reports quoted the doctor’s attorney saying the nurse’s story was a complete lie.
Newsday and other major news channels like abc7ny, described the scene outside the courtroom after the judge pronounced the verdict. Dr. Sasthakonar was surrounded by friends and well-wishers as he emerged from court, and occasionally became emotional as he recounted his traumatic experience.
“What happened to me didn’t hurt me,” he is quoted saying in the abc7ny report, adding, “What happened to (my wife) and the kids is what hurt me…I thought being a good person could protect you against bad things happening to you, against evil. I don’t trust that anymore.” Dr. Sasthakonar is married to an internal medicine physician.
“I hope nobody goes through this hell including the person who started all this,” Sasthakonar’s wife is quoted saying in the cbslocal.com report, adding, “What happened in the past month was a nightmare.”
“After thoroughly reviewing this case, interviewing witnesses and analyzing surveillance video, it has been determined there is not enough evidence to support that a crime occurred,” Brendan Brosh, a spokesman for Nassau County District Attorney’s office, is quoted saying in a statement on cbslocal.com.
According to his profile on the website health.usnews.com, Dr. Venkatesh Sasthakonar Esackimuthu who is affiliated with Nassau University Medical Center, received his medical degree from Mysore Medical College. An April 14, 2008 press release put out by the hospital when it employed Dr. Sasthakonar, described him “as a bariatric surgeon skilled in performing laparoscopic obesity surgeries with excellent results.”
Before he joined NUMC in 2008, the Indian-American doctor had already performed more than 200 laparoscopic obesity surgeries and participated in the management of over 500 morbidly obese patients, according to the press release, all while also providing training for medical students and residents.
He received general surgery training at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center from 2002 until 2007. Dr. Sasthakonar is a member of numerous professional organizations including the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and has published extensively in scholarly journals, and is also actively involved in the development of a “surgical cure” for Type II diabetes, the 2008 press release said.
A Nirav Modi showroom is pictured in New Delhi, India, February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Indians are furious over a $1.8 billion bank fraud case involving Nirav Modi, a billionaire and the man whom Vanity Fair called (in an astonishingly poor sense of timing) “the atelier of India’s most ambitious luxury jewelry brand.”
The diamond merchant, who boasts showrooms from Mumbai to Macau, and whose ornaments have bedazzled such stars as Kate Winslet and Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, is accused of conniving with employees of Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country’s second largest state-owned bank, to create fake letters of undertaking against which he and his uncle Mehul Choksi were able to raise millions of dollars in loans from banks outside India.
Now, the Nirav Modi scandal has become a critical test for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of election season.
A key reason for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in 2014 was that its predecessor, the Indian National Congress, was buried under one corruption controversy after another. The prime minister’s election slogan of “Na Khaunga, Na Khane Dunga” translated to “I will neither take a bribe, nor let anyone else take one.” It hasn’t helped that Nirav Modi, the man at the center of India’s biggest banking swindle, conveniently left the country with his entire family during the first week of January. Three weeks later, he posed with the prime minister in a group photograph of corporate chieftains at the annual economics forum in Davos, Switzerland — just six days before the scam was first reported by the bank.
The government claimed the photograph was “impromptu,” and had no official endorsement. But, by then, satirists and punsters were having a field day with the coincidence that the jeweler and the prime minister share a surname. The explosion of memes and puns has only underlined the pressure that Narendra Modi’s government is facing to take swift and demonstrable punitive action.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the World Economic Forum Jan. 23 in Davos, Switzerland that protectionism is gaining ground as globalization loses its appeal. (Reuters)
The government has made some key arrests and has moved to revoke Nirav Modi’s passport. It has also attempted to shift the narrative by pointing a finger at the opposition, arguing that the financial fraud took seed in 2011, when the Indian National Congress was in power. But whether the Congress is complicit or not, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, will be measured by the high propriety and efficient governance the Modi government has claimed for itself. According to the information released so far, a majority of the fraudulent guarantees were underwritten by PNB during 2017.
This is the second time since Narendra Modi took office that a flamboyant billionaire has effectively mocked India’s legal system by running away before the law could get to him. Liquor mogul Vijay Mallya was accused of defaulting on $1.4 billion worth of loans before leaving the country in March 2016.
Beyond our anger over the flight of these fat cats, there is a deeper question for us to confront: As we are fixated by our pursuit of global recognition, are we partly responsible for celebrating structural inequities and cronyism? So annoyed were we at an Orientalist gaze that for decades could only describe Indians using picture postcards of poverty that, instead, we began to define our self-image by how many millionaires and billionaires made it to the annual Forbes list. And here we are, literally paying the price. Is this the domestic version of America’s ‘Gilded Age’? The satirical work of writers Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner mocked the showy business tycoons of the post-Civil War United States. Their stories of the American “robber barons” of the late 19th century resonate in present-day India.
Now that we know how Nirav Modi allegedly gamed the system, there is an unseemly vulgarity to his ostentatious dinner parties. He once had Michelin-starred chef Massimo Bottura flown to Mumbai just for an evening at the Four Seasons Hotel; at home, guests say his wife would make a big show of using a thermometer to check if the soup on the table was served at the right temperature — both fanciful luxuries that seem to mock the banks and the people they have swindled. Similarly, Mallya reportedly spent $2 million for his 60th-birthday bash — with singer Enrique Iglesias performing — while banks closed in on him for the $1.4 billion he owed them. It’s unforgivable.
This is not capitalism, but a twisted variant. It is a morally unacceptable form of crudeness that mocks the legal system, manipulates political connections and reinforces the gap between the privileged and the ordinary.
In a country where nearly 270,000 farmers have been driven to suicide since 2000, and nearly 80 percent because of an inability to repay small loans (the average value of most of these outstanding loans is about $3,000), it is criminal that millionaires and billionaires live it up as their unpaid loans suck dry the banking sector, and then simply take the next flight to London or Antwerp or Dubai, never to return. An Indiaspend report estimated that, in 2016 and 2017, more than 5,200 “willful defaulters” owed public-sector banks about $8.65 billion, much more than the government allocation for agriculture and farmer welfare. Yet, because these men make up India’s power elite and are embedded deep within the political system, their violations are handled with kid gloves — until it blows up in our faces.
The Indian National Congress was voted out in large measure because of disgust with the cronyism that facilitated collusion between government and big business. Narendra Modi promised to change that, but he needs to shed the statism that is associated with Big Government, and make good on his promise of “minimum government, maximum governance.” Ending the nationalization of banks — a relic from Indira Gandhi’s contentious decision in 1969 — could be a start.
Otherwise, scandals such as that involving Nirav Modi will happen again — and may unwittingly rob the other Modi of some of his own political glitter.
Donald Trump Jr., Basant Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director of M3M India, Pankaj Bansal, director of M3M India and Kalpesh Mehta, founder of Tribeca Developers, pose for photographers during a photo oppurtunity before a meeting in New Delhi, India, February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi?
NEW DELHI – U.S. President Donald Trump’s elder son described India as an important market for The Trump Organization but said the global company will lose out on new deals because of self-imposed restrictions put in place by his father since he took office.
Donald Trump Jr.’s comments, at the start of a trip to woo buyers for his luxury residential projects in several Indian cities, appeared aimed at blunting criticism that there could be possible conflict of interest in pushing the Trump brand name.
Trump Jr. said new business would take a hit in India.
“Few years ago, I said it would become our largest (market) because I really believed in the market… I think it will continue to be the same when I am able to get back in the market and focus on the business side, on new deals again in the future, once my father is out of office,” Trump Jr. told television channel CNBC-TV18 late on Tuesday.
Shortly before taking office last year, Trump Sr. said he would hand off control of his business empire, which includes luxury homes and hotels across the world, to his sons Donald and Eric, and move his assets into a trust to help ensure that he would not consciously take actions as president that would benefit him personally.
Many government and private ethics watchdogs said he should have gone further, divesting himself of assets that could cause a conflict of interest. His partners in India meanwhile are playing up the Trump brand.
In the days leading up to Trump Jr.’s visit, one of its development partners in Gurgaon, near the capital of New Delhi, launched an advertising campaign on the front page of India’s most widely circulated newspapers to lure buyers.
Book your Trump Towers’ residence before Feb 22 and join Mr Donald Trump Jr. for a “conversation and dinner” on Feb 23, the advertisement said, luring buyers with a chance to rub shoulders with the president’s family.
“OPPORTUNITY COST OF THE DEALS”
The promoter advertised that among the buyers for apartments in the 47-floor tower are a famous Indian cricketer and an art maestro, neither of whom was identified.
“India, it has been an important market for us, but again there is this opportunity cost of the deals that we are not able to do that don’t get discussed,” Trump Jr. said, shrugging off criticism about profiteering from the president.
“We could do so many more but we are not doing those,” he said, adding that even as his father put curbs in place, he got no credit for doing so.
Trump Jr. will fly to Pune on Wednesday to meet his development partner after which he will be in Mumbai on Thursday attending a champagne reception with buyers of Trump apartments built in partnership with Lodha Developers.
Trump Jr. will be speaking to Indian business leaders later this week on Indo-Pacific ties. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be present at the event.
Trump Jr. told CNBC-TV18 that America’s economic ties with India were important.
“When you talk about this sort of natural business relationship, beyond the political relationship of the two largest democracies in the world, I think that is an important relationship to maintain especially when you look at what is going on in the world today in many of the other markets and in many of the upcoming powers,” he said.
A U.S. intelligence assessment last year found Russia had meddled in the 2016 U.S. elections and that its goals eventually included aiding Trump Sr. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in his new book expressed derision and astonishment over a 2016 meeting between Trump Jr., his father’s top campaign officials and a Russian lawyer, terming it “treasonous”.
Russia has denied meddling in the election and Trump Sr. has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow.
Kavita Akula has become the first Indian-born basketball player to receive a full scholarship for Division I level basketball at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, according to an Arizona Sports report.
Akula is currently a junior guard on the Grand Canyon University women’s basketball team and is playing her first season after transferring from Garden City Community College.
“She has been through a lot with her journey and all of the places she has been. She’s just very smart and has a high emotional IQ. She has great self-awareness, loves people and has a great sense of humor,” GCU coach Nicole Powell told Arizona Sports.
According to Arizona Sports, Akula moved to the United States from India when she was 14-years-old and played basketball in high school at IMG Academy.
She also represented India in the 2017 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup, where she won a Division B Championship.
After high school, Akula ventured out to Garden City, where she averaged 8.9 points, 1.2 assists and two rebounds per game and when she was done there after two years, she signed, though late, at Grand Canyon University last April.
Akula is shooting nearly 50 percent from beyond the 3-point line this season, according to Arizona Sports.
“I just love it here. It’s just my first year, and it’s really different from Kansas. I am just getting used to everything. Coach Nicole recruited me coming from Kansas, and I just came because of her,” Akula told Arizona Sports, adding that she wants to become like her head coach one day and hopes to promote basketball in India, “playing under Coach Nicole will teach me to do well if I become a coach.”
Akula told Arizona Sports that she “will aspire to transcend a young program that just recently became eligible to play in the NCAA Tournament,” just like her Coach Nicole.
“We are a pretty young coaching staff, which is awesome in that we are all learning to grow from each other. The new kids that we have brought in, like Kavita, have just been phenomenal kids and they want to continue to get better, and want to be a part of what Grand Canyon is about.” GCU assistant coach Brad Langston told Arizona Sports.
“She has had a life experience, which helps, especially for our young kids that are coming in. It’s helping to lead them. She understands what adversity is and facing life from moving away from your family and being in a new country. She takes everything in stride, and it’s just helping to lead our kids on and off the court,” he added.
The University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy and other university officials have gone on a 12-day trip to India to strengthen the school’s existing partnerships while exploring new ones, according to the AP.
According to the AP, the delegation will meet with several Indian governmental, university and business leaders, as well as alumni and incoming students, from the New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
On Feb. 12, education professor Sangeeta Kamat presented research on creating diverse and equitable campuses at Inclusive Universities: Linking Equity, Diversity and Excellence for the 21st Century, an international symposium and report launch held in New Delhi, India, according to a press release.
Kamat was the principal investigator on the joint research project between UMass Amherst and the KSP Women’s Studies Center at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU).
The Inclusive Universities research is sponsored by the U.S. India Education Foundation and emphasizes the importance of making higher education accessible to all in order to keep up with the shifting demographics of India’s college-age population of 16- to 25-year-olds, noting that the student population today is more diverse among caste, class and linguistic background than in the history of higher education in India with more than half of the students being the first in their family to attend college as they are from poor or low-income families, according to a press release.
According to a press release, the study also underscores the importance of understanding how diversity exists within the campus and classroom, how it affects students from different backgrounds and how it influences their behavior and perceptions of other students.
“The report release is groundbreaking because it was one of the first climate studies done in an Indian universities building on the foundational work that has been done in the states led by Dr. Sylvia Hurtado. The conference and report are important moments for UMass and our partners on this project as we documented challenges and now continue to work together on solutions,” Enobong (Anna) Branch, the Associate Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, said at the symposium.
According to a press release, administrators, faculty members and research teams from UMass Amherst and SPPU discussed campus climate theory, research and application and compared their understanding of issues of equity and inclusion in universities in the U.S. and India, at the symposium.
Other speakers included Chancellor Subbaswamy, College of Education Dean Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin and professor of education Ximena Zuniga as well as delegates from SPPU, such as director of the KSP Women’s Studies Center Anagha Tambe and Vice Chancellor Nitin Karmalkar, according to a press release.
“Like our peer institutions, we realize the critical importance of fostering a campus culture that supports the potential excellence of every member of our community. By embracing all the people, ideas and perspectives available to us, we create a richer and stronger learning and working environment. Fostering our differences truly strengthens our ability to identify new solutions and improve every facet of university life,” Subbaswamy said during his speech at the symposium.
According to the AP, the delegation also plans to include a renewal of a memorandum of agreement with Maharshi Dayanand University in Haryana regarding academic and research collaboration and a demonstration of prototype technology which removes difficult contaminants in drinking water and was developed by an engineering professor UMass.
Subbaswamy and members of the delegation will also meet with leaders of Reliance Industries, Ltd., according to the AP.
Indian American Niraj Shah and his business partner Steve Conine have been named as the 2018 Cornell Entrepreneurs of the Year, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
Shah and Conine both graduated from the College of Engineering at Cornell in 1995 and will be honored on April 19 and 20 at the celebration of Entrepreneurship at Cornell’s conference in Ithaca.
Shah and Conine co-founded Wayfair in 2002 and rapidly grew the business to become the largest online retailer of home furnishings, housewares and home improvement goods in the U.S. with extensive operations in the U.S. and Europe, employing more than 6,800 people, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
“Steve and Niraj have worked together through many ventures, with Wayfair being the largest to date. It is wonderful to see two founders who literally met at Cornell advance their business and technology interests so productively,” Zach Shulman, the director of Entrepreneurship at Cornell, told the Cornell Chronicle.
Before founding Wayfair, Shah and Conine have partnered in several other successful ventures including Simplify Mobile and Spinners, an IT services firm that they sold to the global technology consulting firm iXL in 1998, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
Steve Conine (Courtesy: Wayfair)
Shah served as the CEO of Simplify Mobile and Spinners and was also the chief operating officer at iXL.
According to the Cornell Chronicle, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Greylock Partners and is on the board of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Conine has served as the chief technology officer of Simplify Mobile and as a top executive of Spinners, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
He was also the COO for the London office of iXL, today he leads the development of the architecture and software systems at Wayfair.
According to Cornell Chronicle, the Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year award is given annually by Entrepreneurship at Cornell to Cornell graduates who exemplify entrepreneurial achievement, community service and high ethical standards.
Pt Anil Joshi and Shri Yogesh Pandey with Shiva Lingam
In a sure sign of its commitment to devotees, the Hindu Mandir of Lake County, Illinois, kept its doors open overnight to celebrate Maha Shivaratri Feb.13 and 14, to meet the needs and convenience of its members.
Thousands of devotees belonging to all age groups from surrounding areas thronged to the temple to participate in and witness special ceremonies such as the Abhishekams and Alankarams, a press release from the mandir said.
The main attraction of this year’s Shivaratri was Kailash Parvat, the mountain abode of Lord Shiva, constructed from the snow collected in the parking lot.
Kailash Parvat made out of snow
Another highlight was the organic milk and Bilva Patras or fresh leaves distributed to all the devotees to offer toShiva Lingam during the arati. Four priests performed four special Abhishekams and prepared Basma, Haldi-Kunkum, and Pushpa Alankarams, one after each Abhishekam. Special Archanas were performed by the priests after every Alankaram. In between these Alankarams, Rita Patel, Ravi, and Vasu Choksi sang devotional songs. Devotees chanted prayers and sang bhajans.
The Maha Mangal Arati to Lord Shiva was performed with all the devotees before Maha Prasadam. The temple had arranged Prasadam for both fasting and non-fasting devotees.
Ashley’s Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization that was created last year by a 16 year-old Indian-American to promote music programs in underprivileged schools in Chicagoland, held a formal launch Feb. 11 at the Tall Grass Clubhouse in Naperville, Illinois.
The talented Ashley Singh, a junior at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, IL and a prominent member of the Waubonsie music program for the past 3 years, spoke of her passion – bringing music to all children at a young age in school.
Singh started training in Indianclassical music at the age of 4. After learning various styles for 12 years, she is convinced about the importance of music learning for young minds because she believes it helps with concentration, self confidence, and self identity, a press release said. And she speaks from personal experience.
(Photo By: Asian Media USA)
Nothing pains the teenager more than hearing about cutbacks to music programs, and she wanted to make a difference with the foundation.
The AMF is dedicated to spreading the love music education among young children, and also has the mission of helping implement music programs in schools that do not have one.
This January, the AMF started a pilot program at Excel Academy of Englewood under the name Matanoia Choir. She plans to extend the program to other schools on south side Chicago in the academic year 2018-2019, the press release said.
(Photo By: Asian Media USA)
Singh gave a presentation about the importance of music and the mission of AMF. MaCassa Johnson, founder and executive director of State of Emerge-ACity and advisor of AMF, and Matthew Obrzut, the principal of the Excel Academy of Englewood also spoke at the event, sharing how the pilot project at Excel was impacting the lives of students. The event formally started with a lamp lighting ceremony and the honors were done by Ashley Singh, Rita Singh, Sanjeev Singh, Johnson, Obrzut, Sunil Shah, Neil Khot, and Ashfaque Hussain Syed. In a video played at the event, the principal of Waubonsie Valley High School, Jason Stipp, expressed his support.
Ashley’s Music Foundation (AMF) was created in June of 2017 and continues to help students in Chicago Public Schools through the power of music. For more information, please visit www.amfchicago. org.
Some members of the organization, Indian Seniors of Chicago, met at Manav Seva Mandir, Bensenville,IL, Feb. 17, to celebrate birthdays that occur in this month, as well as Maha Shivratri and Valentines Day.
Prayers and Hanuman Chalisa were recited; members were given details of the organization’s expenditures in January and the story of Valentine’s Day was recounted.
Members also heard about Maha Shivratri’s meaning and importance in the Hindu calendar.
Seniors with birthday’s in February were felicitated with the song “Tum Jiyo Hazaron Saal” sung by all those present; the various committees in ISC explained their decisions, including the tours that might be planned for 2018 to various countries such as Dubai, South Africa, and countries in South America, or closer to home, Hawaii or Las Vegas.
LOS ANGELES – The US-based-Indian filmmaker Swati Ali is set to launch a web series based on stories of immigrants from India and other parts of the world to the US.
“We The People”, the 14-episode documentary series, will be unveiled on July 4. It has been self-funded so far and is now seeking community support through a crowdfunding campaign to fund the post-production and marketing expenses, read a statement.
“We The People” explores themes of language, identity, stereotypes, life changes, loss and many others – challenges that are part of life for any immigrant in a new land.
“Moving to the US, it offered me the chance to be a part of a true melting pot. It connected me with people from parts of the world I might never see. I fell in love with every one of their funny, happy and confounding anecdotes about their move to the US,” said Ali, who has written and directed the project.
“Unfortunately, though, the popular narrative around immigration more often than not totally skips over real-life stories that bring a smile to your face, and hinges largely on visuals that cause us to fear the unknown,” she added.
The crowdfunding campaign, which started on Wednesday, will end on March 23.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient Gloria Mendoza participates in a demonstration in support of “clean” legislation in New York, U.S., January 10, 2018. Picture taken January 10, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
A deadline to protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants is less than two weeks away, and it’s looking less and less likely that Washington will act in time to protect them.
So, where does that leave the estimated 700,000 “dreamers” who could face deportation as soon as March 5?
There are a few possibilities, and not all of them are good for dreamers. Here are the likeliest scenarios, in order of least likely to most:
—
4. Congress strikes a deal in time to protect dreamers from deportation
Any momentum Congress had hit a wall last week after four separate immigration proposals tied to protecting dreamers failed to advance in the Senate.
Even though protecting dreamers is something a majority of Washington wants, it’s really hard to find consensus in the details. Take the bills the Senate debated last week and these thorny questions each tried to answer:
–How many dreamers should be legalized?
–Democrats have largely acquiesced to funding some of Trump’s border wall in exchange for protecting dreamers. But how much? And will the funding be for over the next decade, or immediately? Can that money be used to actually build a wall, or could it be a fence and other construction projects?
–Democrats and some mainstream Republicans also don’t like the idea of curbing legal immigration, like the diversity visa lottery program and ending most family-sponsored visas.
On any one of those questions, Congress can’t find an answer that will win a majority in the more moderate Senate, let alone among the more conservative House Republicans. And even if Congress could come up with a deal, there’s no guarantee President Trump will sign it.
That could explain why, after last week’s votes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reportedly thinks the Senate should move on from immigration.
In short, a legislative fix looks like it will not happen anytime soon.
3. Congress doesn’t strike a deal in time, and Trump extends the deadline
Trump is the one who set the March 5 deadline in September after he announced that he was ending the Obama-era program protecting dreamers from deportation. Technically, he could just reset it.
Except the deadline is really more of a political one than a legal one. A federal California judge ordered the Trump administration to keep renewing dreamer protections past the March 5 deadline, and the Trump administration obliged. A federal New York judge also temporarily blocked the administration’s moves to end dreamer protections.
But even if the March 5 deadline were hard-and-fast, the White House has said they aren’t going to extend it. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly told reporters that he doesn’t think the president will push out the deadline for a few reasons:
–He’s not sure the president can, legally
–Congress works best under a deadline, real or not. “What makes them act is pressure,” Kelly said.
2. Congress doesn’t strike a deal in time, and dreamers get deported en masse
After a deadline passes, the ball is in the White House’s court. Trump can decide to deport these dreamers or extend the deadline.
So far, it doesn’t look like he’s considering extending the deadline. Which leaves … well, Trump has hinted that dreamers shouldn’t expect any more protections after Congress failed to find a deal.
“This will be our last chance,” Trump tweeted last week as the Senate was voting.
Still, deporting dreamers en masse would be practically unreasonable and politically risky. Brought to the country as children, fluent in English and arguably as American as someone with citizenship, dreamers are a group that it is easy to have sympathy for. A January Quinnipiac University poll found that even 49 percent of Republicans support legalizing dreamers.
And a February Quinnipiac poll found that a majority of Americans would blame Republicans if dreamers got deported.
That could help explain what Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute, is seeing: Cities and counties aren’t cooperating with federal agents to round up undocumented immigrants nearly as much as they were during the Obama administration. Legally, Trump can’t crack down on sanctuary cities with the wave of his pen (and a bill to help him do that failed in the Senate, though the House did pass one.)
1. Congress doesn’t get a deal, and dreamers just kinda fade into the shadows
This is the likeliest option because it’s the one that’s already happening. Nowrasteh said some 100 dreamers a day are losing their status, and some are getting deported when federal officials do raids, like the handful they’ve done in California and at 7/11 stores nationwide.
Absent a deal to protect them, and absent a deadline, this slow-and-steady fade of dreamers back into the shadows, or back to a home they never knew, will probably keep happening. And since it’s not as dramatic as dreamers all losing their protections at once, there may not be as much public pressure for Congress to act to protect them.
“It will continue to be the slow burn that it already is, where dreamers who come into contact with law enforcement will be deported,” he said. “They just fade back into the shadows.”
