New Delhi: After US president Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending immigration temporarily, Indian government sources noted that it didn’t cover non-immigrant visas and said that these programmes have benefited both countries.
On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order that suspended the “entry into the United States of aliens as immigrants” for the next 60 days. The rationale given was that the pause on issuing green cards will help Americans find employment in an economy that has been hit badly by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
In India, there was no official response. But government sources said that “it does not cover non-immigrant visa” while studying the order.
This category includes H-1B and L1 visas which is used by Indian IT companies to bring Indian professionals to US – and has been the target of angst from the Trump administration in the past.
Also read: Trump Order Temporarily Limits US Immigration During Coronavirus Crisis
Indian government sources reiterated that the non-immigration visa programmes “have benefited both countries”. They pointed out that people-to-people relations “have been the bedrock” of India-US ties. “It is our expectation that it will continue to remain so in the coming years,” added sources.
While the executive order was trumpeted as a radical move by the administration, the proclamation shows that it will only delay giving green cards to a small section of applicants, as there was a long list of exemptions.
The exemptions range from any applicant who is already a permanent resident, high-net worth foreign investors, spouses and minor children of US citizens and those seeking work as a healthcare professional.
As per a Washington Post article published in December 2019, there was a backlog of around 800,000 immigrants who were waiting for a green card – the final step in the legal immigration process before becoming a US citizen. In the employment category, Indians accounted for 75% of the applicants.
On Thursday, there was a phone call between the Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. While the public readouts said that the talks focused on cooperation in fighting coronavirus pandemic, there was no confirmation if the latest presidential order on proclamation figured in the phone conversation.