The return of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States seems to have put the ‘great American dream’ of thousands of Indians & others immigrants in jeopardy. Shortly after being sworn in on January 2, 2025, Trump signed an Executive Order cancelling the provision of ‘citizenship by birth’, the legal principle enshrined in the Constitution that automatically makes anyone born within the US or its territories a citizen.
In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times’ Kumkum Chadha, India’s former ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar said there seems to be an element of racism in the whole approach and added that it reflects white anxiety in the US. “Trump has come with a very strong agenda during his second term & he’s got a bigger political mandate because he controls the Senate, the US house of representatives and a right-leaning Supreme Court,” Shankar added.
The former envoy to the US also said that some of the issues, which derive from his domestic agenda will impact countries like India. She added that the concern among Indians due to Trump’s Executive Order cancelling birthright citizenship is valid. “There is now a whole new framework within which these issues will be dealt with. Trump made illegal immigration a core issue during his campaign and most polls also showed that the majority of Americans favour tougher action on illegal migrants.”
Also read: What is birthright citizenship, does it stop immediately in US with Trump’s order?
Shankar said that the Indian government does not support illegal migration and hence is ready to take back about 18,000 Indian nationals. However, the former ambassador cautioned that the process of identifying Indian nationals may be a challenge, as there are cases where these individuals do not have proper documents and verification may take time. “There are a total of 11 million illegals residing in the US and 7.25 lakh of them are believed to be Indians and that’s a much larger figure than the 18,000 who are coming back in the near future. If deportations of that magnitude take place, it will be a challenge for the two countries to navigate.”
Mass deportation optics
Shankar highlighted how a mass deportation may be bad optics for the Indian government but is certain to be cheered by Trump supporters in the US “Overall it’s a much more uncertain & turbulent world that we are entering because there is nothing fixed about Trump’s policies. He’s quite mercurial, can change his mind and wants to play hardball. He’s a man in a hurry,” Shankar said. She also highlighted differences in Trump’s MAGA leaders in terms of programmes like the H-1B visa, where one section argues that it displaces Americans from jobs, while the other sees this as a necessity to tackle skill-shortage in the U.S. “Since H-1B visas allow them to finally register for Green Card and citizenship, they believe it is contributing to the ‘browning of America’. On the other hand, you have U.S. businesses, particularly big tech, which rely on the H-1B visa programme for getting skilled workers since there is a skill shortage in the US”
Shankar added there is an ideological affinity between the government in India and the government in the US and Trump has shown he’s more comfortable working with those he sees as being in sync with his worldview. She said that PM Modi and Donald Trump are both good communicators and have the ability for rhetorical flourish.
The full interview is available on this link on Hindustan Times’ Youtube channel.