AA Edit | Will Visa Curbs Hurt India or US?
Ever since US President Donald Trump’s second tenure began, the administration — driven by a highly nativist agenda — has been taking steps to control the entry of both legal and illegal immigrants
The United States Department of Homeland Security’s decision to tighten the duration of visas for students, cultural exchange visitors and members of the media is part of the Donald Trump administration’s broader crackdown on legal immigration.
Ever since US President Donald Trump’s second tenure began, the administration — driven by a highly nativist agenda — has been taking steps to control the entry of both legal and illegal immigrants.
While it is the sovereign right of the United States to determine the entry of foreign nationals onto its soil, the Trump administration and those Americans subscribing to the anti-immigrant policy should be mindful of the fact that almost everyone in their country, barring 3.7 million Native Americans, traces their roots outside the United States.
The United States was founded and enriched by immigrants and their descendants. Almost 15 per cent of the top 100 US entrepreneurs in 2024 were born in foreign lands. Another 20 per cent of the American super-rich were the children of immigrant parents who were not American by birth.
If the United States had adopted Trump’s anti-immigrant policy about eight decades ago, the country would not be counting among its citizens the following names: Elon Musk (Tesla), Sergey Brin (Google), Jensen Huang (NVIDIA), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), George Soros (Soros Fund Management), Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsystems), Jan Koum (WhatsApp), and Max Levchin (PayPal), among others. Roughly one-third of American Nobel laureates have also been immigrants.
Immigrants have sustained the glory of America for several generations, and any steps to stop their entry for the sake of populist votes would adversely impact the United States in the long run.
A closed America, however, would potentially end the proverbial American dream for tens of thousands of aspirational Indian youth, negatively affecting their career in the short run. However, in the long run, it could benefit India by halting the brain drain and compelling the country to reform and prosper.