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Biden’s travel ban on India beggars belief
The blanket rule affects a vast swath of Indians simply because they happen to be in a country fighting a grave health crisis
On April 30, US President Joe Biden imposed a travel ban on Indian non-immigrant visa-holders, including the H1-B, L-1, their dependants, business travellers, and visitors. Students on the F-1/M-1 visas earned an automatic exemption if their program starts August 1 or later.
The blanket rule affects a vast swath of Indians simply because they happen to be in a country fighting a grave health crisis. The ban exempts US citizens and permanent residents as though the virus can tell the difference.
Biden’s left turn.
. And why the Indian disapora is irked
US President Joe Biden is moving America leftward big time. If his tax and spending proposals, and social justice actions become law, America would be forever transformed and unrecognisable as the country that spearheaded merit-based private capitalism to uplift world economies.
Although former President Trump injected nearly $4 trillion in deficit spending as Covid relief to help Americans, Biden pushed through another massive $1.9 trillion emergency Covid Bill. Undaunted, Biden announced yet another huge spend plan, a $2 trillion infrastructure proposal that rewards unionised labour, his most ardent voting bloc. Most Indian Americans earn too much to get Covid relief money and do not work in union jobs, so they benefit little from all this spending.
Building bipartisan support
Pressure mounts to implement Trump’s H1-B plan
In his administration’s waning days, former US President Donald Trump issued a change to the H-1B visa lottery rule. Rather than grant visas at random, as has been the case for decades, the new rule prioritised handing H-1Bs out to employers offering the highest wage. The rule would have gone into effect on March 9, six weeks into the Biden administration.
President Joe Biden has spent most of his time in office unwinding Trump’s executive orders. His Homeland Security Director promptly announced that the rule’s effective date was not cancelled but postponed to December 31, 2021.