Why Is India Silent as Trump’s Anti-Migrant Doctrine Targets Indians Abroad?

All of a sudden, the US has expanded its visa ban and turned it into its own version of a new international policy architecture. US President Donald Trump now insists that all his western allies must also enforce his new framework because mass migration from the East had become an ‘existential threat’ to ‘Western civilisation.’ 

Not only this. The US state department has directed its embassies to report the ‘human rights implications and public safety impacts of mass migration across US allies.’ To strengthen its case, it highlighted a few stray cases of ‘notorious sexual assault involving migrants from the East in UK, Sweden and Germany’. 

The US also said its embassy officials will hereafter ‘report policies that punish citizens who object to continued mass migration and document crimes and human rights abuses committed by people of a migration background.’ Indian media has so far carefully avoided any reference to such US assaults. But those abroad have provided details of the implications of Trump’s new ‘existential’ doctrine. 

US embassies were tasked with diplomatic efforts and vetting visas for those who wish to head for the US and monitor what is happening in their respective countries. They will scrutinise any leniency in reporting migrant crimes and human rights violations. 

The state department’s ‘thread’ referred to several instances of alleged cruelties committed by the immigrants from the East in Western countries to prove the need for a ban on migrants from the East. It referred to the rape of a 16-year-old girl by an Eritrean in Sweden and an investigation into the alleged sexual harassment of 1,400 children by men with Pakistani heritage. In Telford, a report found that about 1,000 girls had been abused over 40 years.

The new US formulation – giving an East-West twist to the civilisational angle to migration – seems to heavily borrow from Samuel P. Huntington’s 1990s’ thesis on clash of the civilisations. But only a part of it, i.e, wherever it suits the US. 

Luckily, sections of international media, think tanks and human rights institutions, have come down heavily on the new US hypothesis. This, in fact, began much before the new aggressive policies were formally announced. Many media outlets have expressed concern over such blanket formulations. 

Pope Leo XIV strongly backed the US bishops who were strong opponents of the immigration crackdown. They asked American people to listen to their appeal and treat migrants humanely. 

Against so much concern in the US, the Indian media went about as if nothing had happened. Even the official statement by the state department was played down, apparently in the interest of the Indian regime. 

With an unpredictable and aggressive person like Trump at the helm, how can any government plan a country’s future production and draw up its long-term economic and trade strategies? 

Why is no one asking this pertinent question? The whole world knows this predicament. China can perhaps bargain and get the best favourable terms. Russia could perhaps resist pressures and have things on their terms. Look at the helplessness of Volodymyr Zelenskyy – we are told there is a talk of regime change in Ukraine. 

At the moment, we are witnessing another kind of migration — the unusual plight of capital from countries like the UK – about which various governments are still evolving their country-specific strategies.. We will deal with this phenomenon in the next column, when there is more clarity about its intensity and impact. 

Trump’s MAGA-driven statecraft has another group of victims: the Indian-American community and their associations, especially the Hindutva groups. Throughout Trump’s first presidency, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hindutva associations had revelled in the glory of their voting power in America and his cosy relationship with the Trump administration. 

Modi and Trump repeatedly emphasised this ‘special relationship.’ Trump still continues to call Modi ‘my best friend’ albeit formally. During the ‘howdy Modi’ days, the US president was so impressed by the crowd at the stadium that he hoped to rely on Modi supporters for electoral support. 

Since then, there has been a confluence of interests between the two leaders who sought to take advantage of their transactional politics. Even during Trump’s re-election campaign in 2020, Modi was so confident that he offered unqualified support for the former when he coined the slogan ‘Ab ki Baar Trump Sarkar’. But the rival, Joe Biden, won. After Trump’s re-election in 2024, the re-elected leader, due to the MAGA factor and fierce internal pressures, became an altogether changed man. 

Trump 2

The dynamics of Trump’s second presidency changed and the new regime began strictly adhering to the principle of transactional engagement. Trump continues to mention his ‘friendship’ with Modi but retaliated with heavy tariffs on India. The old ‘Howdy Modi’ relationship was no more. 

Consider the ongoing turmoil among American-Indian organisations, especially the Hindutva groups, over the frequent outbursts against them by Trump and his senior colleagues. Their predicament was worsened by comments from those like Shashi Tharoor, who has now been quietly preparing ground for closer ties with Modi.  

Tharoor’s recent laments accusing the Hindu American Foundation’s silence over injustice being done to India by the US administration evoked a strong response from the former. “We are not the ‘mouth pieces’ of any government or party in India,” the Foundation said. “We are engaged in democratic process of our own country,” it asserted.

 The foundation’s clarification speaks volumes of their changed position on a number of issues affecting the US citizens of Indian origin. When forced by the American establishment to choose between the more precious US citizenship and loyalty to Hindutva principles, they readily opted for the former. Their loyalty to Hindutva was a disposable commodity. Not one of the Hindutva adherents in the US was ready to sacrifice their citizenship to uphold their ideals. They all obediently dumped their Hindutva fervour at the altar of US citizenship. 

Consider the growing anti-Indian wave all over the US – from commonplace narrative to the more uncontrolled social media outbursts. The Modi regime’s tight media control may have successfully shut out the anti-India outbursts from the ordinary Indian readers. However, the truth is that such shut-outs would not work in this era of fast information flow. 

Hate against Indians

Just have a look at the US media, chiefly its more virulent social media. A study by the Centre for Organised Hate (Cosh) tracked 128 widely viewed posts attacking Indians on X between December 22 and January 3 2025. These posts amassed 138.5 million views — showing the scale and reach of the anti-Indian narrative. 

Many of these described Indians as ‘invaders’ and “job thieves,” and called for deporting them. H-1B resentment and job theft frames were prominent within the leading cluster, blending xenophobia with economic insecurity and amplifying calls for visa bans, denials, deportation and denaturalisation of Indians. Over 120 posts (17.8%) used anti-Indian slurs and drew 74.3 million viewers. 

Anti-Indian outcry peaked in August 2025 with 381 posts and 189.9 million viewers. The US-India tariff dispute and incident-based outrage coincided with the narrative spikes, indicating that policy tensions and breaking news act as predictable accelerants of the racist content. Around 65% of posts were US-centered, confirming the US as the epicenter of anti-Indian digital racism. 

“Go back to your country. You are stealing our jobs,” said another study conducted by AAPI Equity Alliance. It cited 44,000 slurs directed against South Asians, mostly Indians, between May and June 2024. 

“We need to get out of here” – this is the growing sentiment among sections of immigrants in the US. Trump’s immigration crackdown is thus reshaping where immigrants live in America. This has been the conclusion of a set of interviews done by the National Public Radio with several immigrants in Florida.  

At this website, you are first asked to declare that you are a US citizen before you are allowed to read details of the way Indians are targeted in the most ugly language. ‘Outsiders’ are not allowed to read it. Give a false declaration, if you so choose, and try it. You will know what kind of language they use to abuse ‘outsiders’ 

Another study narrates how the isolated slur at the beginning evolved into economic anxieties, political resentment and culture war narratives targeted the entire community. 

In an age of fractured mandates, personality cults and transactional alliances, P. Raman brings clarity to India’s shifting political equations. With Realpolitik, the veteran journalist peers beneath the slogans and spin to reveal the power plays, spectacle, crises and insecurities driving India’s politics.

P. Raman is a veteran journalist and political commentator.

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