An immigrant from India who came with his wife and infant son for graduate school in 2021, he stayed after finding a tech job at a Fortune 500 company that provided him with an H-1B visa. His family has embraced the most American style of vacationing epic road trips that have taken them to 28 states. Their son, now 4, loves cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets and the Woody Guthrie song This Land Is Your Land, which he learned at preschool.
Last month, he and his wife were thrilled to discover she’s pregnant. But just two weeks later, excitement turned to apprehension when President Donald Trump announced a new rule under which children born to parents who aren’t permanent residents won’t automatically be US citizens
The policy — on hold for now after a legal challenge — felt cruel and vindictive, and upended his understanding of what’s possible for holders of H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. The deal, as he saw it, is that one of the rewards for moving around the world to take in-demand jobs that US companies couldn’t otherwise fill was that any kids born in the country would be citizens.
Ajay’s dilemma shows the wide ranging fallout from the early days of Trump’s immigration crackdown. While the emphasis during the campaign was border security and deportations of people in the country without permission, some of Trump’s first executive orders have targeted legal immigrants.
That includes refugees whose resettlement plans were canceled, asylum seekers whose appointments to plead their case were scrapped and holders of H-1B and other work and student visas who are now trying to navigate what the new policy on birthright citizenship means for their families.
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