(Image source from: India Tribune)
An Umpteen Indian-origin teenagers and young adults rallied to protest against more attention being given to illegal immigrants. The rally took place in front of the Capitol Hill.
Despite having arrived in the United States legally, the protesters, whose parents are legal H-1B workers were demonstrating against having to 'self-deport' themselves at the age of twenty-one.
In addition, they offered to fund Trump's wall in order to fast-track green card approvals.
Earlier in February, Indian H-1B workers in line for green cards offered to pay at least $4 billion to fund border security, including an infamous proposed wall along the Mexican border.
Self-deportation
The kids who have arrived in the U.S. Lawfully with their parents are entitled to stay in the U.S. till the age of 21 when their H-4 dependent visa expires.
Since owing to 70+ years of backlogs in green card allotments, peculiarly for Indians, these kids are unable to get theirs, and thus have to 'self-deport' at the age of 21.
DALCA kids vs DACA kids
Another major component of contention Deferred Action for Legal Childhood Arrivals (DALCA) kids policy, is that their other, illegal counterparts, under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy are getting more priority of citizenship despite the fact that they are on the legal track of the citizenship.
DALCA kids offer $25 billion to build Mexico wall
The DALCA kids have offered humongous $25 billion to the Trump administration to aid in building the proposed Mexico border wall.
Deadline for 'Dreamers'
The DALCA and DACA kids legal immigration status, informally called the 'dreamers', will have to be decided before June 25 deadline set by the House GOP.
Hope for DALCA kids
There's still a glimmer of hope for the DALCA kids, as some U.S. lawmakers are sympathetic to their issue and secondly, as of Thursday, the draft proposals were being circulated in Capitol Hill showing eligibility for citizenship candidates, under a new iteration of the DACA permit, an also for those under DALCA.
I wish I was an illegally arrived child: Rally organizer
By some accounts, there are nearly 200,000 Indian-American children who were brought to the US legally by their parents on H-1B or other work visas. Their prevailing sentiment, says Vikram Aditya Kumar, one of Wednesday's rally organizers, is "I wish I were an illegally arrived child instead of a legal one." While DACA hopefuls are getting all the attention, the DALCA voice, he says, "is just not loud enough" even though losing DALCA kids, most of them in the STEM track, could potentially cause a brain drain for the U.S.
By Sowmya Sangam
