Tag: Homeland Security

US Repatriated 1,100 Indians Staying Illegally in Past Year: Official

A senior official of the US Department of Homeland Security noted that the US does not have a precise breakdown of the locations from which Indian nationals came from, but that the October 22 flight ‘deplaned in Punjab.’

New Delhi: About 1,100 Indians staying in illegally in the United States were repatriated to India between October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the US Department of Homeland Security, Royce Bernstein Murray, said.

Murray, at a virtual press conference, fielded questions from journalists who asked her on the October 22 charter flight to India, carrying illegal entrants to the US.

As The Wire has reported before, a press statement issued by the US Department of Homeland Security sated that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had “conducted a large-frame charter removal flight to the Republic of India of Indian nationals who did not establish legal basis to remain in the United States” on that day.

“Could you give us a sense of the number of Indians who have been deported in the last year from the United States? Have you analysed the trends in the recent past to see whether the number is accelerating?” Murray was asked.

“Let me start by saying that in fiscal year 2024 [the US fiscal year starts in October and ends in September], which just concluded at the end of September, the United States repatriated over 1,100 Indian nationals. That has been part of a steady increase in removals from the United States of Indian nationals over the past few years, which corresponds with a general increase in encounters that we have seen with Indian nationals in the last few years as well,” she said.

She noted that the US does not have a precise breakdown of the locations from which Indian nationals came from, but that the October 22 flight “deplaned in Punjab, which was designed to ensure that people in general may be closer to their place of origin.”

“However, that is meant to convey that individuals may or may not be from Punjab and surrounding states. But we do not have a precise breakdown of the locations from which Indian nationals who were returned have originated,” she stressed.

As the earlier report had noted, unlike the phrases in vogue in India in political statements, official documents or even court rulings, the US press release refers to the persons being deported as “Indian nationals who did not establish legal basis to remain in the United States.”

In India, Union home minister Amit Shah has used the word “termites” to refer to Bangladeshi migrants, while he and other ministers regularly refer to undocumented migrants from that country as “infiltrators”.

Facing Huge Influx of Migrants at Mexico Border, Biden Stands by Immigration Policy

US President Joe Biden said he would not apologise for rolling back immigration policies of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump that undermined “human dignity”.

Washington: US President Joe Biden said on Thursday he would not apologise for rolling back immigration policies of his Republican predecessor that undermined “human dignity” and brushed off criticism that migrants were making the journey to the southern border because they perceived him to be a “nice guy”.

Speaking at his first White House news conference, Biden sought to defend his handling of rising migration at the US-Mexico border. While he mostly struck an empathetic tone, he said the United States was expelling the vast majority of migrants, including families, under a COVID-19 public health order.

The Trump-era order allows border agents to rapidly expel migrants without giving them a chance to claim asylum, but it has angered civil rights groups, who say it is illegal.

The number of migrants caught at the border has climbed sharply in recent weeks, thrusting Biden into an emerging humanitarian and political crisis a little more than two months after he took office.

The migrants include a rising number of unaccompanied minors, who have not been subject to the pandemic-related expulsion policy. As of Tuesday, nearly 5,000 children were backed up in crowded border stations awaiting transfers to overwhelmed federal shelters. Biden said he would not leave children stranded at the border.

Also read: How the Trump Admin Left Long-Lasting Mark on US Immigration Courts

“I make no apologies for ending programmes that did not exist before Trump became president that have an incredibly negative impact on the law, international law, as well as on human dignity,” he said.

US Border Patrol caught roughly 1,00,000 migrants at the border in February, the highest monthly level since a spike in mid-2019. Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that border crossings are on pace for the highest level in 20 years.

A senior Biden administration official on Thursday forecast that numbers would likely rise during “spring caravans” and said the government planned to “go after” smuggling organisations that were manipulating migrants. Smugglers told Reuters this month that they had been encouraging parents to send their children alone as a result of the shift in US policy since Biden took charge.

Republican opponents say Biden, a Democrat, encouraged more migrants to cross illegally when he rolled back some of Trump’s restrictive policies. “It turns out when politicians spend a two-year campaign advertising a porous border and amnesty, people listen,” senate minority leader Mitch McConnell tweeted.

Also read: Biden Says He Will Reverse Trump’s Immigration Policies ‘Immediately’ After Taking Office

During the news conference, Biden said his government was in talks with Mexico to encourage Mexican authorities to take back more migrant families, many of whom are fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. Asked for clarification on Biden’s comment at a briefing to reporters, White House officials did not cite any specific progress but said the two countries were working together on the issue. Mayorkas said earlier this month that the United States was working with Mexico to increase its capacity to receive expelled families.

While Biden said on Thursday that the “vast majority” of families are being sent back to Mexico under the Trump-era health order, which is known as Title 42, US government data suggests that is not the case. More than half of the 19,000 family members caught at the border in February were not expelled, with many released into the United States to pursue immigration court cases. For example, on March 17, 201 only 15% of family members caught were expelled under the order, according to internal US Customs and Border Protection data shared with Reuters.

(Reuters)

India Indicates Trump’s WHO Fund Freeze Is Ill-Timed, as It Weighs the Tedros Equation

A difficult and delicate diplomatic situation lies before India as the US continues to rail against the WHO and its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

New Delhi: After US President Donald Trump announced that he was freezing funds to World Health Organisation due to its apparent failure in stopping the coronavirus pandemic, India on Wednesday noted that, with the world still in the midst of a full-blown outbreak, this was not the right time to assail the body.

Trump, who has been facing criticism over his initial response to the COVID-19 outbreak, has accused the World Health Organisation of going soft on China.

“Today I am instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus. Everybody knows what has gone on there,” he said, in remarks delivered at the White House’s Rose Garden.

He claimed that in mid-January, WHO had endorsed the Chinese authorities’ views that there was no human-to-human transmission, despite reports to the contrary.

“The WHO pushed China’s misinformation about the virus, saying it was not communicable, and there was no need for travel bans… The WHO’s reliance on China’s disclosures likely caused a 20-fold increase in cases worldwide, and it may be much more than that,” he said.

Trump also assailed the UN’s public health body for being unable to obtain virus samples from China. “Had the WHO done its job to get medical experts into China to objectively assess the situation on the ground and to call out China”s lack of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained… with very little death…”

In New Delhi, the mood was that while the WHO requires reforms, the US president’s call to cut funds was ill-timed.

Also read: Donald Trump Stops US Funding to WHO, Blames it for COVID-19 Spread

“At present, our efforts and attention are fully focused on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the world has addressed this crisis, we can revisit this question,” said government sources. There was no official statement from the ministry of external affairs.

International condemnation

The international reaction has been similar, even from US allies and partners. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison commiserated with Trump, but said it was important to not “throw the baby out of with the bathwater here”.

German foreign minister Heiko Maas said that “blaming others won’t help”. “One of the best investments is to strengthen the UN, above all the under-funded WHO… in the development and distribution of tests and vaccines,” he tweeted.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borell stated that there was no justification for this decision at this moment.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres stated that this was “not the time” to reduce resources for the operations of WHO. “As I have said before, now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences,” he said.

Bill Gates, the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who are the top voluntary non-state contributor to the WHO, described the plan to halt freezing as “dangerous”.

China said that the decision would “weaken the WHO’s capabilities and undermine international cooperation”.

WHO’s finances

WHO’s budget is financed through two methods. The first is assessed contributions of member states, which is calculated based on a formula related to the country’s economy and population. The second method is through voluntary contributions, could be from countries or from private organisations.

Trump has been repeatedly stating that the US provided over $500 million as funds to the WHO last year, accounting for a major part of its budget. This is largely related to its voluntary contribution – which is tied to specific projects in various countries that are chosen based on national interest.

The US has, in fact, not paid up its assessed contributions since 2019 – and is estimated to owe an outstanding amount of over $200 million to the WHO.

India’s assessed contribution to WHO in 2020 stood at around Rs 31.4 crore ($4.1 million). While about $1.9 million has already been paid before January 1, another tranche that is to be paid in Swiss Francs will be submitted by the end of the financial year.

While Indian officials felt that the time for accountability is in the future, New Delhi may face a dilemma when the issue finally does come to the table.

The Tedros equation

The US administration and Republicans have personally targeted WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for allegedly deferring to China.

US Senate Republicans were already pushing for a wide-ranging investigation through Homeland Security and the Governmental Affairs Committee into the origin of coronavirus and WHO’s role. A letter from Senate Republicans to the WHO Director General called upon him to explain why he had praised China’s transparency during the crisis.

Also read: COVID-19: The Devil in the Data

White House Economic Adviser Peter Navarro even described Tedros as one of the “proxies” of the Chinese government that Beijing uses to gain influence over the UN government.

Politico had also reported that the US president’s top aides were working on a proposal to float an alternate to the World Health Organisation.

The increasing attacks on WHO and Tedros, and the announcement to freeze funds in Washington on Tuesday, occurs in the background of rising criticism over Trump’s handling of the pandemic and his initial dismissal of the seriousness of the outbreak.

With 607,000 cases, the US has the largest number of confirmed infection of COVID-19 in the world. As of Wednesday morning. At least 26,000 people have died across the country so far.

On January 24, Trump had praised Chinese President Xi Jinping on Twitter for China’s “transparency” in the fight to contain the spread of coronavirus.

But that wasn’t the only occasion. CNN reported that Trump had praised or projected confidence about China’s response to the pandemic at least 12 times in the month of February.

If the US decides to make Tedros a scapegoat and increase pressure, it will put India on the precipice of a difficult and delicate dilemma.

Indian diplomatic sources confirmed that India had not only voted in favour of the former Ethiopian foreign minister, but also actively campaigned for him in the successful election in May 2017. Tedros defeated UK’s David Nabarro by 133 votes to 50 in a closed-door session of health ministers.

Also read: Not Just COVID-19 Guidelines, Our Govt Would Do Well To Follow WHO’s ‘Life Skills’

While China had also been one of the key backers for Tedros, Indian officials pointed out that New Delhi’s assessment was led by the endorsement from the African Union. Elections at multilateral agencies are also about quid-pro-quo deals behind doors. Not surprisingly, the large bloc of African nations are an important component of India’s strategy to get elected at crucial bodies.

After his election, Tedros chose Soumya Swaminathan, the former director general of ICMR, as his Deputy Director-General for Programmes. She currently serves as WHO’s chief scientist.

During the current crisis, WHO officials have been quick to praise the Indian government’s policy to combat the pandemic. Tedros himself took to Twitter to praise the Modi government’s economic package for the economically backward section of the population during the national lockdown.

The assessment about WHO’s work has been that while Trump’s view about the world body may not be correct, the UN organisation has not been as effective as it could have been. They specifically point out the delay in the announcement of coronavirus as pandemic by the WHO. “It may be technically correct, but the delay did lead to many countries not taking effective steps to stop the spread, including travel restrictions,” said a senior government official.

During the G20 video conference, Modi had flagged reforms in the World Health Organisation as one of the key priorities. “WHO certainly needs reforms, but the time to push for it is later,” explained the official.

Tedros would most likely be looking for re-election once his current term ends in 2020. While he hasn’t yet announced his candidature, most director generals of the world body have had multiple terms. His predecessor, Margaret Chan of China, had held the position for a decade.

If Trump wins his re-election bid, Washington is not likely to look kindly at another term for Tedros in Geneva. This will certainly lead to New Delhi having to choose between supporting Washington or keeping African nations happy and not letting Beijing have a free rein in the continent.

For China, the attack on WHO and Tedros could not have come at a better time. Sino-African relations have been facing an unexpected crisis, with African countries making rare and public criticism of China for racial targeting of African nationals in Guangzhou, China for being carriers of coronavirus pandemic. There was even the unprecedented spectacle of the speaker of the Nigerian parliament giving a public dressing down to the Chinese ambassador.

African leaders had already been rallying to the support of Tedros over the last week, starting with African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat. Representing the 55-nation association, Mahamat said that US government’s decision was “deeply regrettable”.

On the Anniversary of 26/11, India Needs to See Beyond the US Model of Counter-Terrorism

Homeland security will be better served by basic fixes in India’s law enforcement system rather than by the deployment of sophisticated technology and weaponry.

Note: This article was first published on November 26, 2017 and is being republished on November 26, 2018.

Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed – who carries a bounty of $10 million announced by the US for his role in terror activities and whose arrest in January this year was seen as a signal of a broader shift in Pakistan’s treatment of extremists – walked from house arrest a free man on Thursday. The timing couldn’t have been more ominous. The 26/11 Mumbai attacks took place today exactly nine years ago. 166 people were killed and over 300 were injured in those attacks.

Away from the media gaze on Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistani court conducting the trial of the seven suspects, including LeT (Lashkar-e-Tayyaba) commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, late last month ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to appoint a “focal person” to press for getting the Indian witnesses to Pakistan to record their statements in the case. The suspects have been facing charges of abetment to murder, attempted murder, planning and executing the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The trial has dragged for over eight years also because of repeated transfer of judges hearing the case. As many as nine judges have heard the case in the past eight years.

Thankfully, there has been no major terrorist attack beyond Jammu and Kashmir in the country since 26/11. Is this because our security architecture is more muscular now and our law enforcement agencies are better equipped to prevent such an attack? How are we placed today against a total of 52 terrorist groups that are active in different parts of India?

India’s counter-terrorism experts need to appreciate the fact that the American brand of dollar-driven, technology-obsessed, biometric profiling-based Homeland Security architecture won’t work in our context. Homeland security has cost successive US governments billions of dollars right from the Bush years of the war against terror. India can’t afford that sort of budgetary expenditure. But even if we could, the hard reality is that this vast multi-religious, multi-ethnic nation of ours cannot be secured and protected or policed in the way the US has been.

Ours is not that kind of nation, not that kind of homeland, not that kind of neighbourhood. Our history, geography and political economy make us different from the US and unresponsive to the American way of doing things. We have a hostile nuclear weapons state as a neighbour that is perennially consumed by its own internal political permutations and combinations and slowly spinning out of control. Pakistan’s political economy being what it is, India can’t afford to wish away the dangers of living with a difficult neighbour.

We have around 170 million Muslims who are being targeted as a community in the name of cow protection and pushed to the wall. Every day, young men and women face trials and tribulations because of their religious identity. If even a tiny fraction of them were to totally lose trust in the state machinery and start doubting their worth as citizens of this country and radicalise, they would end up as a threat not just to India, but to the whole world. If ten well-armed foreign terrorists could hold off the NSG commandos and the police for three days, what model of homeland security can secure and protect our nation from the collective anger of alienation, perceived or real, of Indians?

A few brief observations are in order.

One, the strength of Muslims in the Delhi Police is at an all-time low. Until July this year, it had nearly 1,300 Muslims or 1.7%of the total actual strength of 76,348. According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) ‘Crime in India’ reports, since 1999 the Muslim percentage in the police department (excluding Jammu and Kashmir) has hovered around 3%. Given the fact that Muslims in India number more than 170 million or 14.2 % of the population, such representation is extremely low.

Two, anti-terrorism laws in India have a conviction rate of less than 2%. More often than not, the law enforcement agencies are using them a means of putting inconvenient people away without bail for a long time and eventually letting them go. The erring police investigators can literally destroy the lives of innocent persons who are wrongfully accused and even convicted of crimes they had nothing to do with. From investigating officers who do not testify truthfully, to police officers who manufacture, destroy and suppress evidence, and even law enforcement officials who have improperly influenced witness identifications and suspect confessions, there have been many instances where police misconduct has resulted in wrongful convictions. This has been the pattern right from the beginning. When the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) was in operation between 1985 and 1995, the maximum arrests under the law were effected in Gujarat, a state where there was not even a single case of terrorism during that period.

Three, India’s tryst with counter-terror strategy is not merely about technology. It is about accountability of the police as the most visible arm of the Indian state and their competence as the first responder as well. Raising more and more armed battalions and sanctioning more funds won’t solve the problems on the ground.

Four, the state governments are in no hurry to implement the famous Prakash Singh judgment, that is the Supreme Court 2006 directives on police reforms. As long as chief ministers and their cabinet ministers can use the carrot of lucrative postings and post-retirement sinecures and the stick of one-line transfer orders, they are under no obligation to take the police leadership seriously. So, from the political angle, the Prakash Singh judgment is as relevant as a seatbelt in an aircraft that is destined to stay parked on the runway. As things stand today, it is farfetched to expect police reforms to rejuvenate our internal security architecture.

Five, in 2012, 36 CRPF men died of mosquito bites and heart attacks as against 37 in Maoist violence. In 2013, as many as 22 CRPF men fell to the two causes as against 20 to Maoists. In 2014, while 50 CRPF men died in Maoist attacks, 95 died due to various illnesses. Of these, 27 fell to malaria, while 35 died due to heart attacks. The data says as much about the poor working conditions and lack of medical care for jawans in Naxal areas as it does about the pitiable conditions of the local communities. The predicament of the constabulary, the first responder, beyond the Maoist-dominated areas in India, is no better. A visit to any police barrack and its toilets will prove this point. No police force can serve a country well with this kind of physical dilapidation, let alone fight terror.

After the Dantewada incident in 2010 in which Maoists trapped and gunned down 75 security personnel, P. Chidambaram, the then home minister, suggested the government could “revisit” its decision not to deploy air power, pointing to his desire to raise the pitch of the current battle. Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik was the first to react. He said he was opposed to deploying the air force against the Maoists because the armed forces are trained for lethal operations to kill the enemy, not fight “our own citizens”. India’s counter terror strategists would do well to remember Naik’s wise words. Rabid rabble-rousers like Hafiz Saeed will come and go. India’s internal security is too delicate a subject to be handled like a military problem.

Basant Rath is 2000 batch IPS officer who belongs to the Jammu and Kashmir cadre. Views expressed are personal.

Trump Signs Order to Strengthen Election Security By Enabling Sanctions

The order, coming only eight weeks before congressional elections on November 6, drew immediate criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers as too little, too late.

Washington: Under fire over his handling of Russian election meddling, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday meant to strengthen election security by slapping sanctions on foreign countries or people who try to interfere in the US political process.

The order, coming only eight weeks before congressional elections on November 6, drew immediate criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers as too little, too late.

Trump signed the order behind closed doors with no reporters present, a rare departure from what has been his standard practice.

“As I have made clear, the United States will not tolerate any form of foreign meddling in our elections,” Trump said in a statement.

Sanctions could include freezing assets, restricting foreign exchange transactions, limiting access to US financial institutions, and prohibiting US citizens from investing in companies involved, national security adviser John Bolton told reporters.

Bolton said sanctions could be imposed during or after an election, based on the evidence gathered.

US intelligence agencies concluded that entities backed by the Kremlin sought to boost Republican Trump’s chances of winning the White House in the 2016 election against his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. But Trump in July publicly accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denials at a joint press conference after they met for a summit in Helsinki.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and congressional panels are investigating Russian interference, which Moscow denies. Mueller is also looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Trump dismisses the investigations as a political witch hunt.

Lawmakers said the executive order, which would give the president decision-making power on imposing sanctions, was insufficient.

“Today’s announcement by the administration recognises the threat, but does not go far enough to address it,” said Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen in a joint statement, advocating legislation.

Automatic sanctions

The order represents an effort by the administration to look tough on election security before the voting in November, which will determine whether Trump’s Republicans maintain their majorities in the US House of Representatives and the Senate.

Bolton said criticism of the president’s response to the issue, which has included his controversial comments in Helsinki and numerous tweets, played “zero” role in driving the issuance of the executive order.

“The president has said repeatedly that he is determined that there not be foreign interference in our political process,” Bolton said on a conference call. “I think his actions speak for themselves.”

The order would direct intelligence agencies to assess whether any people or entities interfered. The information would be provided to the Justice and Homeland Security departments, and then based on their assessment of the validity and impact, trigger automatic sanctions, US Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Dan Coats said.

Intelligence agencies would have 45 days to make an assessment. Then the two departments would have 45 days to determine whether action is required, Coats told reporters.

The State and Treasury departments would decide on additional sanctions to recommend and impose.

Bolton said the order was necessary to ensure a formal process and authorisation for sanctions. He said he was in talks with lawmakers about possible legislation.

Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat who is vice chairman of the intelligence committee, said, “Unfortunately, President Trump demonstrated in Helsinki and elsewhere that he simply cannot be counted upon to stand up to Putin when it matters.”

“While the administration has yet to share the full text, an executive order that inevitably leaves the president broad discretion to decide whether to impose tough sanctions against those who attack our democracy is insufficient,” Warner said.

DNI Coats said the measure was being put in place as part of government efforts to report on any suspicious activity between now and November’s elections and to do a full assessment after the election that would trigger sanctions if necessary.

Coats said the United States had seen signs of election meddling from Russia and China, and potential capabilities for such meddling from Iran and North Korea.

“It’s more than Russia here that we’re looking at,” he said.

US lawmakers have introduced various pieces of Russia-related legislation urging punishments for election meddling.

Congress passed a Russia sanctions bill more than a year ago. Some lawmakers have chafed at what they saw as the administration’s reluctance to implement it.

Trump signed the bill into law only after Congress passed it with huge majorities. Acting on the law, the Treasury Department has imposed sanctions against 24 Russians, striking at allies of Putin.

(Reuters)

Top US and Indian Security Officials Discuss Draft Plan On Six Areas

The draft plan is related to six areas, including anti-terror cooperation in intelligence sharing, terror financing and cyber security and was discussed by top homeland security officials of both the countries ahead of the maiden two plus two dialogue between India and US.

New Delhi: Ahead of the maiden two-plus-two dialogue between India and the US, top homeland security officials of the two countries have worked on a draft plan related to six areas, including anti-terror cooperation in intelligence sharing, terror financing and cyber security.

During the Indo-US Homeland Security Dialogue, held recently, senior officers deliberated on a draft work plan relating to the activities of the six sub-groups, an official privy to the development said Monday.

The six sub-groups formed under the Indo-US homeland security dialogue cover the areas of (i) Illicit finance, Illegal smuggling of cash, financial fraud and counterfeiting, (ii) cyber information, (iii) megacity policing and sharing of information among federal state and local partners, (iv) global supply chain, transportation, port, border and maritime security, (v) capacity building and (vi) technology upgradation.

Cooperation in matters related to counter terror initiatives and intelligence sharing were given stress during the recent meeting, the official said.

Both the sides agreed to work out the modalities to address these issues and agreed to maintain sustained interactions to enhance security cooperation between the two countries, another official said.

The Indian delegation was led by Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry Rajni Sekhri Sibal while the US side was led by deputy under secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, James McCament.

The Indo-US homeland security dialogue was launched in 2010 as the mechanism to a sequel to the signing of the India-US counter-terrorism initiative.

The maiden two-plus-two dialogue between India and the US is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will be meeting their Indian counterparts, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, to discuss enhancing America’s engagement with India on critical diplomatic and security priorities.

US: No Extension of H1B Visas as Part of Trump’s ‘Buy American, Hire American’ Initiative

The move could directly stop hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from keeping their H-1B visas while their green card applications are pending.

Donald Trump. Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar

Donald Trump. Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar

Washington: The US is considering new regulations aimed at preventing the extension of H-1B visas, predominantly used by Indian IT professionals, as part of US President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” initiative, a media report has said.

The move could directly stop hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from keeping their H-1B visas while their green card applications are pending.

The proposal which is being shared between the Department of Homeland Security Department (DHS) heads is part of Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” initiative promised during the 2016 campaign, US-based news agency McClatchy’s DC Bureau reported.

It aims to impose new restrictions to prevent abuse and misuse of H-1B visas, besides ending the provision of granting an extension for those who already have a green card.

“The act currently allows the administration to extend the H-1B visas for thousands of immigrants, predominantly Indian immigrants, beyond the allowed two three-year terms if a green card is pending,” the report said.

“The idea is to create a sort of ‘self- deportation’ of hundreds of thousands of Indian tech workers in the US to open up those jobs for Americans,” it said, quoting a source briefed by Homeland Security officials.

“The agency is considering a number of policy and regulatory changes to carry out the President’s Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, including a thorough review of employment-based visa programmes,” said Jonathan Withington, chief of media relations for US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

It is typically issued for three to six years to employers to hire a foreign worker. But H-1B holders who have begun the green card process can often renew their work visas indefinitely.

The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The proposed changes would have a dramatic effect particularly on Indian visa holders considering more than half of all H-1B visas have been awarded to Indian nationals, the report said, quoting the Pew Research Center report.

“This would be a major catastrophic development as many people have been waiting in line for green cards for over a decade, have US citizen children, own a home,” said Leon Fresco, who served as a deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department in the Obama administration who now represent H-1B workers.

Fresco estimates more than one million H1-B visa holders in the country are waiting for green cards, many of whom are from India and have been waiting for more than a decade.

Trump Administration Programme to Test Expanded Drone Use

Donald Trump has launched a programme to expand testing of drones to include flights over people, nighttime operations and flights out of sight of the operator.

US President Donald Trump talks with reporters as he departs the Oval Office of the White House for Dallas, in Washington D.C., U.S. October 25, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria

US President Donald Trump talks with reporters as he departs the Oval Office of the White House for Dallas, in Washington D.C., US, October 25, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria

Washington: President Donald Trump launched a programme on Wednesday to expand testing of drones to include flights over people, nighttime operations and flights out of sight of the operator, the White House said.

The pilot programme aims to speed up the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles into the national airspace system and test drone detection and tracking while waiving some limits on their use.

Under a memorandum signed by Trump on Wednesday, states and local governments would be able to seek Federal Aviation Administration approval for testing and expanded use. The White House stopped short of proposing new regulations that would allow broader nationwide use of drones or any timetable for new authority.

White House adviser Michael Kratsios told reporters the “programme will open the skies for delivery of life-saving medicines and commercial packages, inspections of critical infrastructure, support for emergency management operations.”

Kratsios said the program would allow companies and governments to operate drones in ways that are currently restricted by the FAA “including beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights, nighttime operations, and flights over people.”

Alphabet Inc and Amazon.com Inc are among a growing number of companies hoping to make package delivery by drones a reality.

The memo said the Transportation Department could allow drone flights at up to 400 feet with the goal of approving at least five pilot projects. The program would expire in three years.

In 2016, the Obama administration opened the skies to low-level small drones for education, research and routine commercial use, but left in place significant restrictions.

The FAA estimates by 2021 the fleet of small hobbyist drones will more than triple and commercial drones will grow tenfold to about 442,000.

In June, Trump told drone executives the administration wants “to create new companies and lots of jobs… We’re going to give you the competitive advantage that you need.”

In attendance were chief executives of drone companies including Kespry Inc, AirMap, Airspace Inc, Measure UAS Inc, Trumbull Unmanned, and Precision Hawk Inc.

Drone manufacturers have argued that the administration should move faster to approve broader commercial use of drones and noted that the Transportation Department does pre-approve self-driving vehicle technologies.

But security concerns remain.

In September, a civilian drone struck and damaged a US Army Black Hawk helicopter near Staten Island, New York.

This month, a drone hit an airplane landing at a Quebec City airport, the first time an unmanned flying object collided with commercial aircraft in Canada.

The FAA has banned drone flights over 133 US military facilities and over ten US landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty in New York and Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, at the request of national security and law enforcement agencies.

The memo said that the Transportation Department would coordinate with the Defense Department, Homeland Security and Justice Department to consider public safety and national security risks in approving pilot projects.

The Commercial Drone Alliance said it was “optimistic that the program will become a model for overcoming some of the hurdles keeping the full potential of commercial drones from being realized.”

Senator John Thune, a Republican, said the new policy “provides sensible direction that promotes drone safety, innovation, and local input.”

(Reuters)

From Human Shields to Human Rights, Experts Debate India’s Internal Security Challenges

Issues raised at the ninth edition of the homeland security meet included the use of AFSPA in peaceful areas and the existing gaps in the military equipment procurement policy.

Issues raised at the ninth edition of the homeland security meet included the use of AFSPA in peaceful areas and the existing gaps in the military equipment procurement policy.

Indian army personnel. Credit: Reuters

New Delhi: Three years since the Narendra Modi-led BJP government came to power at the Centre, India is yet to streamline its acquisition policy for the central paramilitary forces – one of the major causes of delays in acquisition and the use of obsolete equipment by the forces. This has further led to high casualties among security personnel and unrest among citizens, as the pellet gun fiasco in Kashmir has shown.

These were among the concerns raised at the ninth edition of the homeland security meet organised by FICCI on Wednesday, May 24, on the theme ‘Modernisation of India’s Internal Security Mechanism.’

Recent developments in the country – the incidents of stone pelting, use of pellet guns, the tying of a civilian, Farooq Ahmad Dar, to an army jeep as a human shield in Kashmir and the strikes by Maoists in the country’s heartland – dominated the narrative.

Pellet guns impact sentiments

On the Kashmir issue, former union home secretary and chair of FICCI committee on homeland security, G.K. Pillai, said he was the home secretary when the decision to use pellet guns was taken in order to minimise casualties after the killing of a large number of students in firing incidents in the Valley. “But what we have seen now is that the tell-tale marks of pellet injuries have impacted the society. This happened because the police used pellets when the crowds came too close. As a consequence, most injuries were to the faces. In 2010 too the question was what should a cop do when a crowd threatens to overrun a post,” he said.

Man used as human shield should be compensated 

The answer, Pillai said, lies in devising a standard operating procedure on when is it best to use force to minimise casualties. Defending the action of Major Leetul Gogoi, who claimed that he used the man as a human shield to evacuate a polling party peacefully, Pillai said that while one should respect the decision of the soldier on the ground as it prevented casualties, an apology was due to the civilian who was used as a human shield “because his civil rights were violated.”

“He should also be compensated and officials should pay a visit to his home.”

Former chief of army staff, General N.C. Vij, who is now the director of Vivekananda International Foundation, said critical gaps exist in the internal security apparatus of India. He said “crowd dispersal methods and technology need definite improvement.”

Why not remove AFSPA from peaceful areas

General Vij said that while demand for revoking the Armed Forces Special Powers Act has often been raised, the fact remains that “it is there to provide legal protection to the armed forces in areas of conflict and it would be unfair to the man in uniform to be pushed into a conflict without such a cover.” However, he demanded that it be removed from areas that have been peaceful for a long time and where the chances of return of militancy are low. “Barring some parts of Manipur, all other areas in the Northeast have been peaceful for quite some time and there is no reason for continuing with the AFSPA there,” he said.

The Supreme Court had last year ruled the Act could not be used to commit excesses by the army.

Army can train police forces, not fight “its own people”

On the issue of Maoism being witnessed in some parts of central India, General Vij said the need of the hour was to use the army for training the paramilitary forces. “The problem is of training in the CPMFs,” he said adding that the army can provide the skills needed to combat such warfare. “But the army should not be used directly in anti-Maoist operations as it cannot be fighting its own people in the heartland.”

Observe caution when it comes to removal of AFSPA: BJP

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra in his keynote address during the first session countered General Vij’s argument on withdrawal of AFSPA from some parts of the country. “We should bear in mind how militancy and unrest returned to some parts of Kashmir which had become peaceful after AFSPA was withdrawn,” he said.

As for Jammu and Kashmir, he said, from its recent posturing in Naushera where Pakistani bunkers were destroyed to Modi spending his first Diwali as prime minister in the state, and from announcement of a special package for the Valley to the handling of floods, the Centre had tried everything to convey its right intent in the state.

Overall, in the last three years, Patra said the major takeaways in internal security have been the formulation of the new National Security Clearance Policy of the home ministry for ensuring a balance between requirements of national security and the imperatives of rapid economic growth, streamlining of the strategy on fake Indian currency notes, for which agreements have also been signed with countries like Bangladesh and the creation of a computer network for laboratories – F-net.

Apart from this, Patra said the government has also formulated a major national strategy to combat the rise of ISIS. “It was declared a terrorist organisation and 13 states were taken on board to devise a framework to check its spread.” Also, he said, a Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems has been developed by National Crime Records Bureau for tracking criminal activity across the nation.

Over 200 operations after Sukma

As for left-wing extremism, Patra said following the recent attack on security forces in Sukma, over 200 operations have been carried out against the Maoists in which their 20 operatives have been killed. He said the government has decided to provide 250 bullet and mine protected vehicles to the security forces in the affected area.

Patra said that in last three years, there has been an overall reduction in “red terror” with the total attacks falling by 25% and deaths in these incidents by 42%. On the other hand he said the number of cadre killed has risen by 65% and those who surrendered by 185%.

Chinese radar keeping watch on China

Member of NITI Aayog V.K. Saraswat, who is also a former director general of Defence Research Development Organisation, while chairing a session on technologies for homeland security, said the country was not facing a problem of availability of technology, but of getting the right one at the right time for its police forces. Citing examples of how India is using Chinese radars to keep an eye on the country they have been procured from or how despite having 15 companies which export bullet proof jackets it had been importing them, he said these examples speak of the lacunae in the procurement policy.

The 5.79 lakh VIPs in India

Adjunct professor of National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, Gautam Sen, highlighted the misplaced priorities of the internal security mechanism when he noted that as against a total of 84 VIPs in Great Britain, 109 in France, 125 in Japan, 142 in Germany, 252 in US, 312 in Russia and 435 in China, India had 5,79,092 VIPs, most of whom were politicians.

Former director of Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Mathur, while chairing a session on procurement transformation for armed police and state police forces, spoke of the need for creating a mechanism like the one for defence forces for their procurement needs. As a first step, he suggested the creation of a task force and allowing some flexibility to the officers in meeting their specialised procurement needs.

On behalf of Central Reserve Police Force, which is involved in operations in Kashmir and against left wing extremism, its inspector general (provisions) Anupam Kulshreshtha said, “procurement was linked directly to the fighting fitness of the force”. She said the need of the hour is a rule book on police procurement as at present officers evade this work for fear of being hounded if contracts for specific needs are given out to a few or single vendors. Calling for closer coordination between the providers and the police agencies, she recalled how a former D-G of the force had received a sub five kg bullet proof vest prepared with the help of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre by approaching it directly.

Need for procurement bot and board

Special commissioner (operations) in Delhi police, Dependra Pathak said in procurement “the biggest fear is post factum analysis”. As such, he said, a good information system on technologies available is required. “We need a ‘procurement bot’ to ensure systems using latest technology are procured. For this he insisted that the procurement process be expedited by setting up a procurement board since often by the time the system is procured it becomes obsolete and more advanced versions have flooded the market.

Military Gains Against ISIS Not Enough, Could Backfire: US Officials

Eliminating the threat ISIL poses will require coupling the military gains in Iraq and Syria with political and economic reforms, say US officials and outside experts.

A member of the Iraqi security forces prepares to fire a mortar during clashes with Islamic State militants in Khadraa neighborhood in Falluja, Iraq, June 14, 2016. Credit: Reuters/Stringer

A member of the Iraqi security forces prepares to fire a mortar during clashes with ISIS militants in Khadraa neighborhood in Falluja, Iraq, June 14, 2016. Credit: Reuters/Stringer

Washington: President Barack Obama and some administration officials have hailed recent military gains against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but other US officials and outside experts warn that the US-backed air and ground campaign is far from eradicating the radical Islamic group, and could even backfire.

While ISIS’s defeats in Iraq and Syria have erased its image of invincibility, they threaten to give it greater legitimacy in the eyes of disaffected Sunni Muslims because Shi’ite and Kurdish fighters are a major part of the campaign, some US intelligence officials argue.

A second danger, some US officials said, is that as the group loses ground in the Iraqi city of Falluja and elsewhere, it will turn increasingly to less conventional military tactics and to directing and inspiring more attacks against “soft” targets in Europe, the US and elsewhere.

One US intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, warned that in response to losing Falluja and other cities the group likely would turn more to guerrilla tactics to disrupt efforts to restore government services.

“We can expect ISIL to harass local forces that are holding cities it previously controlled, thereby drawing out battles into protracted campaigns,” he said.

The territory held by ISIL has enabled it to build up revenues through oil and taxes, provided it a base to launch attacks on Baghdad, and acted as a recruiting tool for foreign fighters drawn to the self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate.

President Barack Obama said on June 14 – two days after a gunman pledging allegiance to ISIS killed 49 people in Orlando – that the militant group was losing “the money that is its lifeblood” as it continues to lose territory.

Brett McGurk, the presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, told a White House briefing on June 10 that the group has lost half the territory it had seized in Iraq, about 20 percent of its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria, and at least 30% of its oil production, which accounts for half its revenue.

But ISIS fighters in Iraq are already showing signs of adapting a guerrilla war-style strategy, Seth Jones, an analyst with the RAND Corp, told Reuters.

“It looks like the areas that the ISIS has lost, they are generally abandoning, and that would mean preparing to fight another day,” he said.

Despite the progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, CIA Director John Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week: “Our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach.”

“The resources needed for terrorism are very modest, and the group would have to suffer even heavier losses of territory, manpower, and money for its terrorist capacity to decline significantly,” he said.

Encouraging lone wolves

Hassan Hassan, a terrorism expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, told the US Senate Homeland Security committee on Tuesday that the Orlando attack showed the group’s territorial losses hadn’t diminished its broader appeal.

“The ISIS’s international appeal has become untethered from its military performance on the ground,” he said.

Sunnis in Iraq no longer view the ISIL radicals as liberators, and the Shi’ite role in the fighting is less important than it was a year ago, officials in Baghdad told Reuters. As a result, they said, the Iraqi army has gained Sunni acceptance and is seen less as a Shi’ite-led sectarian force than it was under former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

But the risk that offensives against ISIL involving Shi’ite forces could foment sectarian tensions and help the group have been underscored by allegations that 49 Sunni men were executed after surrendering to a Shi’ite militia supporting the army offensive to retake Falluja.

Such reports “feed into ISIL’s narrative,” the US intelligence official said.

Former US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, who visited the country in March, wrote last week in the Cipher Brief, an online intelligence publication, that extremist Shi’ite militias are on the scene in Falluja. Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani has underscored Iran’s role in the conflict by appearing publicly on the battlefield.

As ISIL has faced military setbacks, the flow of foreign fighters travelling to Iraq and Syria has dropped significantly, according to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.

European counter terrorism officials said some 300-400 already have returned to Britain, raising concerns about what they called an increasing convergence of IS ideology and mentally unstable individuals.

So called “lone wolf” attackers like the Orlando shooter are ISIS’s way of “overwhelming their enemies with threats that have to be run to ground,” Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University in Washington, told Reuters.

“That is the true intention beyond the lone wolf attacks — to distract and overwhelm the attention of law enforcement and intelligence.”

Eliminating the threat ISIL poses will require coupling the military gains in Iraq and Syria with political and economic reforms, say US officials and outside experts.

“They became a strong organisation because of the political failure,” Hassan said. “My fear is that there’s so much focus on the military component, rather than on the political, and social and religious dimensions.”

(Reuters)