Circa 2016, Candidate Trump did what has never been done before in a presidential election: He explicitly courted Hindus through the Republican Hindu coalition a conservative lobby group run by Shalabh Kumar of Chicago. The event was in New Jersey which has a major Hindu population. NJ itself voted for Clinton. In the end 70% of Indians in the US still voted Clinton and 30% voted Trump. The event marked the beginning of the most unlikely of alliances. Traditionally democratic leaning Indians started swinging over to the GOP. Over the last 4 years since then, Trump has had a cult following among Indians. The statement is anecdotal but where every vote counts, I have been bombarded with sales pitches for Trump from close to 1000 people on Facebook and WhatsApp. Posts ranging from why democratic VP candidate is evil personified to why Biden is good for nothing as far as my homeland India is concerned keep blanketing my timeline. Many of those posting against Biden have one thing in common: they are all current or former Indian citizens. Many of them also have another thing in common: They are patiently waiting their turn to get US permanent residence aka Green card over the last 10+ years.

It is pretty evident and pitiable that these big newly minted supporters (about 600K nationwide) of the GOP cannot vote. This need not have happened at all. That is where the problems for Republicans started. It started with a bill that was passed by a democratic majority senate in 2013.

A fix to the broken immigration system was attempted by US Senate’s Gang of Eight including late GOP Sen John McCain in 2013 ¹.

Under the bill which was passed in the Democratic senate:

• The cap on the H-1B visa program for high-skilled workers would be immediately raised from 65,000 a year to 110,000 a year, with 25,000 more set aside for people with advanced degrees in STEM from a U.S. school. The cap could go as high as 180,000 a year depending on demand.
• New protections would crack down on companies that use H-1B visas to train workers in the U.S. only to ship them back overseas.
• Immigrants with certain extraordinary abilities, such as professors, researchers, multinational executives, and athletes, would be exempted from existing green-card limits as would graduates of U.S. universities with job offers and degrees in STEM.  
• A startup visa would be made available to foreign entrepreneurs seeking to come to the U.S. to start a company.
• A new merit visa, for a maximum of 250,000 people a year, would award points to prospective immigrants based on their education, employment, length of residence in the U.S. and other considerations. Those with the most points would earn the visas.
• The bill would eliminate the government's Diversity Visa Lottery Program, which randomly awards 55,000 visas to immigrants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States, so that more visas can be awarded for employment and merit ties.

The bill ultimately failed in the GOP dominated house for two reasons:

• The GOP did not want President Obama to take credit for passing the bill as law.
• There were major provisions for undocumented immigrants which were unacceptable to them.

After the GOP took over the senate in 2015, no attempt was ever made to fix the immigration system including legal immigration. No genuine attempt was made to fix the legal immigration green card backlog problem which disproportionately affects Indians. In 2016 Candidate Trump courted Indians like none before him in a Presidential race. As it turned out to be a photo finish, a mere 76,744 votes were the difference between Trump and Clinton in 3 rust belt states which decided the winner.  Post the photo finish, the tide turned heavily against the GOP with Democrats regaining Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and Nevada gubernatorial seats and winning over traditionally GOP leaning Louisiana, Kentucky, and Kansas. As part of the stunning turnaround, the Democrats regained control of the US house after a long gap of 8 years.

But throughout the turnaround story one group of people who stayed fiercely Republican were the Indian immigrants or immigration seekers. Everything that President Trump has stated in the campaign trail has received rapturous support from his Indian fan base. This includes his tirades against immigrants from other countries. Such statements would be countered by:

• What about Biden? Biden is not India friendly after all. He imposed sanctions on Russia for exporting cryogenic engine technology to India.
• Mainstream media is fake news and they do not like India and Trump.
• Trump did so many good things for India. Why don’t you look at the positives?
• Trump is going to win the Nobel Peace Prize for starting diplomatic relations between Israel with UAE and Bahrain.
• Pointing out the problems with Democratic states such as law and order.
• Pointing out how Indophobic the Democratic reps such as Pramila Jayapal, AOC, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are.
• Look at how fellow Democrat Tulsi Gabbard is treated by the Democrats. (Note: I respect Rep Gabbard a lot and concur that she should have been treated more respectfully by the Democratic party. Unfair on the Democrats’ part.)
• Blaming Democrat run city councils’ resolutions against India as a reason to kick out Democrats.  In my opinion, it is a genuine irritant but not a deal breaker at the national level.  

In short, they would do anything to defend the incumbent POTUS. Readers of my earlier columns and ardent Indian Trump supporters also ended up making personal attacks on me on social media. I had to unfriend/block them for my own peace of mind.  

I have lived in the US for 21 years and I have never known any other candidate receiving this much unconditional love and support from Indians.

• When there was investigation into Russian interference in 2016, he received more support from Indians than even local American friends of mine.
• The situation remained unchanged during the impeachment trial.
• It was likewise during the ban on international students staying in the US while their university classes went fully online.  
• And similarly, now during the raging corona virus pandemic. It continues even after the release of Bob Woodward tapes.  

No matter how he performed or what he did, he has had vociferous Indian support. How can anyone answer hypothetical questions like “What makes you think Biden would have handled the pandemic better? Biden would have been no better at handling it.” I know my fellow Indians are good at technology. But seeing them defend the seemingly indefensible, I am proud of them being the best lawyers the world never knew about.

There is however an unfortunate and inconvenient truth to the story for so many fellow Indians who say, “I support President Trump and the GOP”. They just cannot vote. They would have if not for the intransigence of the Republicans and their unwillingness to deal with President Obama in 2013.  In the event of a photo finish in 2020 in favor of the Democrats, they will live to regret it. After all they could have fixed it a lot earlier. Having 600K more people voting for them is an asset they let slip out of their hands.

There is one definite consequence for President Trump getting reelected in 2020. India born Indian citizens who are waiting patiently for their legal permanent residence for decades will never get it. But they will be like good citizens paying taxes and be good employees tied to their sponsoring company for a lifetime. In a nutshell, their American dream will be over.  If the Republicans do not attempt to fix it with the House, Senate, and White House under their control, how will they do it if Decision 2020 is in favor of the incumbent? That too when people like Stephen Miller run the show in the white house! I would love to be proved wrong.

1. https://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/immigration-bill-summary-093557

Image Credits:  https://www.kcbd.com/2020/03/04/decision-election-results/