‘DACA Fix’: High-Skilled Indian Workers Rally to Support Trump’s Merit-Based Immigration Program

WASHINGTON, DC — Hundreds of high-skilled Indians and Indian Americans rallied in front of the White House on Saturday in support of President Donald Trump’s merit-based immigration plan and called for ending the visa lottery system and chain migration while debunking the mainstream media’s attempts to label the commander-in-chief a racist.

Most of those present were experts in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) field.

The rally was organized by the Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC), a Hindu-American community organization founded by Chicago-based inventor and entrepreneur Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar in 2015 under the leadership of Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and many other senior leaders of the Republican Party.

“It was quite evident from this rally that Hindus totally debunk the mainstream narrative of Trump being a racist,” a press release issued by the RHC read:

Thanks for organizing rally for such a great cause #RHCrally #MeritBasedSystem #ClearGreenCardBacklog @iamshalabhkumar @Krishnaillinois @RHC_USA , Also special thanks to @YashBodduluri @tanafoundation for leading rally and making it a huge success … pic.twitter.com/43JZ04xV7A

— tirumala reddy (@tiru417) February 4, 2018

Some of the signs held up read, “We Love Trump,” “Trump Loves Hindus,” “Trump is the Best,” “Make America Proud Again,” “Boycott Fake News,” “Trump Is Not a Racist,” “Trump Great on Taxes,” “Trump Great on Crime,” “Trump Bringing Ramrajya” (Rule of God), “End Chain Migration,” “End Country Limit: Bring the Best and the Brightest,” “End Visa Lottery,” “DACA Fix: Purple Cards, No Citizenship, Fee to Build the Wall,” “Don’t Forget Legal Childhood Arrivals,” “DALCA Kids Deserve Better,” “Cut Green Card Backlog,” “Hire American Buy American,” “DACA Broke the law,” and “DALCA Obeyed the Law.”

According to the RHC, “Besides 700,000 DACA kids, there are 200,000 DALCA kids, children of legal immigrants-in-line from India, who have never broken the law, but who simply age out at 21 and have to go back, because their parents have a 60 year wait to get their green card after it is approved.”

President Trump recently stated that merit-based immigration should be a requirement for any DACA fix.

During the rally, members of the RHC indicated their belief that DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) should be referred to as DAICA (Deferred Action for Illegal Childhood Arrivals). The press release about the event further stated, “RHC declared at the Rally that it has full sympathy of DAICA kids, but there should be Compassion with Justice. DAICA kids want security. They want the threat of deportation, a sword hanging on their necks, removed.”

Many of Saturday’s demonstrators were reportedly software engineers and other technical workers from South Asia who were able to enter the United States through H1-B visas. “When I came here, my daughter was six years old,” Nandu Konduri, 45, a software engineer in North Carolina, told the Washington Post. Konduri has reportedly been waiting for his green card application to be processed since 2007. He reportedly added, “Many kids have already aged out. We feel stuck.”

Breitbart News has reported, “According to the book Ab Ki Baar Trump Sarkar! (roughly translated as “Next Time It Will Be the Trump Administration”), which chronicled Kumar’s contributions to the Trump campaign, the Democratic Party took Indian-American votes for granted for many years. The phrase “ab ki baar Trump sarkar” was inspired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign.”

Indian and Hindu-Americans contributed significantly to Trump’s historic victory. According to Kumar, more than one million Hindu American voters changed their registration from Democrat to Republican when then-candidate Trump spoke at a huge Hindu rally on October 15, just three weeks before the November election.

Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.