Trump’s Immigration Policy and Its implications

Context

US President Donald Trump through an executive order banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries (Tran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) and almost all refugees from entering America.

Discussion

Trump’s immigration ban received worldwide condemnation. The opposition to this move has emerged even within the United States. The opposition came from US tech industry, Hollywood, academia, among others. Several American industry captains have labelled the ban to be counter-productive for US enterprise, innovation and business. Through its history, immigrants have contributed significantly to growth and development of US.

Counter to the perception of Trump’s administration, country-specific bans will not work to combat terror. Nationality cannot be a category to decide whom to enter the country. It is based on the wrong notion that all of a country’s nationals are terrorists. This would even be counterproductive for America in many respects. It would undermine America’s ability to nurture the people to lead the country towards moderation as well as to gather intelligence on possible terror attacks. It will tarnish the image of America’s soft power in the minds of the people and will strengthen extremists within targeted communities.

India

India must prepare itself if there is a clampdown on US visas for Indian professionals, businesses and passport holders by the Trump administration. In such a case, government should take advantage of that situation and lure people to bring Silicon Valley to India and give fillip to ‘Make in India’.