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Thousands of people from India, who arrived in the US illegally as children, are fearing deportation after President Donald Trump decided to repeal an Obama-era amnesty programme, a South Asian Advocacy group has said.
Trump repealed the Deferred Action for Children Arrival (DACA) programme that granted work permits to immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as children, a move likely to impact 8,00,000 undocumented workers including more than 7,000 Indian-Americans. Former US president Barack Obama has decried this decision calling it "wrong," "self-defeating" and "cruel."
He said the move was not "required legally", while terming it a "political decision".
The number of people from India who arrived in the US illegally as children could be more than 20,000, according to an estimate carried out by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT). SAALT said:
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Raghunathan added, “Our current patchwork of immigration policies and programs is broken, and we demand the Congress does its job to craft a commonsense immigration process that creates a roadmap to citizenship for aspiring new Americans. This is the only way to align our immigration laws with the values Americans hold dear.”
SABA said when the DACA program ends, the 8,00,000-plus registrants who relied upon the federal government's representations by coming out of the shadows and willingly shared their information with the federal government will be in danger of deportation.
This number includes over 10,000 South Asian DACA recipients, it said.
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