The TOI correspondent from Washington: The Trump administration on Thursday introduced a complete evaluation of all 55 million lively US visas held internationally to establish potential violations that would result in revocation and deportation of overseas nationals.In a major escalation of immigration enforcement aimed purportedly at defending US nationwide safety and public security, the State Division stated all US visa holders, together with vacationers, college students, employees, and enterprise vacationers, are topic to “steady vetting” to establish grounds for ineligibility, together with visa overstays, felony exercise, threats to public security, or hyperlinks to terrorism.Additionally learn: Indian scholar arrivals to US crash 46% in July: Right here’s the way it may value American college studentsThe evaluation course of contains analyzing social media accounts, legislation enforcement and immigration data from visa holders’ dwelling nations, and any violations of US legislation. New necessities launched earlier this 12 months mandate that privateness settings on digital units be disabled throughout visa interviews, facilitating information assortment. The administration has additionally secured entry to thousands and thousands of immigrant tax data from the Inner Income Service (IRS) to test for violations. Ought to violations be discovered, visas might be revoked, and people already within the US might face deportation. Moreover, the State Division is contemplating a proposal for visa candidates to submit bonds of as much as $15,000 to enter the U.S., additional tightening entry protocols.Additionally learn: Donald Trump’s new Immigration Coverage to finish H-1B Visa Lottery: This is what it means
An estimated 5 million Indian residents are believed to be holding lively US nonimmigrant visas, together with visas for tourism, enterprise, and training, reminiscent of B1/B2 customer visas, F-1 scholar visas, and H-1B work visas. A minimum of one million of them are already within the US. The evaluation expands a vetting course of that originally centered on college students concerned in pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel actions on campuses, which the administration controversially labeled as selling “anti-American” or “antisemitic ideologies.” Since January this 12 months, when the Trump dispensation took workplace, the State Division has revoked over 6000 scholar visas, citing causes reminiscent of overstays, assault, driving beneath the affect, and, in some 300 instances, alleged assist for terrorism.In a associated transfer, Secretary of State Marco Rubio additionally introduced a right away pause on issuing employee visas for industrial truck drivers following a horrific accident in Florida during which an Indian Sikh who entered the US illegally made a reckless U-turn leading to three deaths. The motive force, recognized as Harjinder Singh, later flunked English fluency and street signal checks, answering solely two out of 12 questions accurately in English and figuring out just one out of 4 freeway indicators proven to him.“The rising variety of overseas drivers working massive tractor-trailer vehicles on US roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio stated. The Sikhs Political Motion Committee (SikhsPAC) estimated in 2018 that round 150,000 Sikhs work within the US trucking business, with 90% (roughly 135,000) being drivers.