For the 725,000 Indian immigrants living without visas in the US, the third-largest group of undocumented immigrants, President Joe Biden’s recent executive order on immigration has brought much-needed relief. It eases the path to employment and citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, or ‘Dreamers’, undocumented residents who were brought to the US as children. About 2,000 of such “Dreamers” in the US are Indians, and they are now eligible to apply for employment-based visas such as the H1-B. The executive order also removed some application requirements for undocumented spouses of US citizens. However, for the nearly 1.6 million Indian nationals living legally in the US, neither Biden nor Trump has made meaningful reforms, although both presidential candidates have indicated support for high-skilled, employment-based immigration from India.
Deep Patel is a “documented Dreamer.” Brought to the U.S. as a child by Indian parents on an H1-B visa, he faced self-deportation (voluntary departure from the country before legal proceedings) at age 21 if he didn’t qualify for an employment visa. “When I was in high school, I realized that every decision and choice I was making would have an impact on my ability to stay in the country,” he said. “Later, I learned that this is something that is affecting not just me but thousands of people like me.”
Narrow paths
Patel founded Improve the Dream, a youth-led grassroots organisation that aims to advocate for the nearly 2 lakh “documented dreamers” in the US, most of whom are Indian-Americans. These are immigrants like Patel who face self-deportation because their parents did not get a green card – the waiting period for which can be 134 years – until they turn 21. The H1-B lottery, the primary route for ‘documented dreamers’ to remain in the States, had an approval rate of 14.6% in FY24.
“With the current lottery system, the probability of visa approval is very low, and it’s going to be even lower because so many more DACA recipients are going to apply,” Patel says. “And that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t deserve that opportunity — but that the administration should prioritize (systemic reform).” In 2021, 74.1% of H1-B visas were granted to Indians, which remains the primary mode of immigration to the US from India.
“Nothing good has happened in 34 years,” says Charles Foster, a senior immigration adviser to George Bush and Barack Obama and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (who is famously featured in Mao’s Last Dancer). “I’ve known Biden since I supported his first presidential campaign in 1988, and his heart is in the right place. (But) Congress hasn’t enacted any major legislation on immigration since 1990.”
Immigration still a thorny issue
Congresswoman Deborah Ross, a member of the House India Caucus and the Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee, is one of the most ardent advocates of immigration reform in Congress. “The good news is that we now have bipartisan, bicameral legislation to include ‘documented dreamers’ alongside original dreamers…which has passed the House twice. But we are not moving forward on immigration issues because of political fights and fights at the border,” she said. Patel added that “any kind of immigration bill is very, very difficult right now (due to Republican opposition).”
The most important issue is that the annual cap on H1-B issuance is 65,000 per year, and the country quota on green cards is 7%, meaning no country can receive more than 7% of the annual employment-based green card allocation. For the 1.1 million Indians stuck in the green card backlog this could mean a lifetime of waiting; for thousands of Indian applicants in the H1-B lottery this could mean deportation.
“The problem is that the right wing of the Republican Party is unwilling to admit that we need more workers and more skilled workers in this country,” says Representative Ross. “I absolutely believe that voters who care about positive immigration reform are being completely ignored. My district has a growing Asian-American and Latino community. Every time I talk to the Chamber of Commerce, I hear about this issue. It’s the number one issue for the hospitality and restaurant industry.”
‘I need staff’
Kiran Verma, one of the most celebrated Indian chefs in the US, who was invited to the White House by the Obamas, says: “I have been running Kiran in Houston for two decades and the situation has never been so dire because of the lack of trained staff. I need chefs, I need waiters, I need managers. Earlier, it was very easy to get them from India. Now, even the best talent cannot come because the process is so cumbersome.”
However, Trump is even less likely than Biden to be an ally for Indian immigrants, even if they are college-educated. “He said such things before his last term, but his actual record shows he made the situation worse for legal immigrants,” Patel said. “He walked back his claims about green cards the very next day.” Project 2025, the recently released policy book for a second Trump presidency, proposes using backlog numbers to trigger automatic suspension of applications for large categories, among other restrictions on immigration.
The question is whether positive immigration reform will be the deciding factor in the election, especially at a time when Biden’s support among Indian-American voters has dropped by 19% since the debate. Even for Indian-Americans who support Trump, immigration remains a key issue. Jugal Malani, CEO of Unique Group Industries and president of India House Houston (and organiser of Howdy Modi in 2019), says that although he supports Trump even in 2024, “I fully support immigration reform: this country runs on immigrants.”
Risk of losing talent
Rep. Ross said, “I was in India less than a year ago. And what I heard was that young people from India, many of whom have come to my district for advanced degrees and to do amazing jobs, no longer think it’s worth it. And so they’re staying in India, and India, frankly, loves it.” In fact, total H1-B applications for FY 2025 had declined by 38%. “We’re going to lose talent — and when we lose talent, we lose our competitiveness,” she said.
Verma agrees. “My journey would not have happened if immigration laws were the way they are today. The promise of the American dream must continue. I hope we can work through this issue with whoever takes power in the White House this November,” he says.
(Maya Prakash is a New York Times Award-winning writer and an alumnus of Williams College, Massachusetts, and the University of Oxford.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal views of the author
