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In a significant crackdown on human trafficking, the United States has deported 54 Indian nationals who entered the country through illegal routes. The group landed in New Delhi on Sunday evening aboard flight OAE-4767 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. All of them belong to various districts in Haryana. The deportation has prompted Indian authorities to intensify their investigation into the notorious human smuggling network known as the “Donkey Route.” -snip- According to statements from some deported individuals, they were forced to pass through over ten countries, including Guyana, Brazil, Peru, Panama, and Mexico, before being detained at the U.S....

"My feet are swollen. I was shackled for 25 hours (on the flight)," said 45-year-old Harjinder Singh, who was part of the latest batch of Indians deported by the US. Expressing his ordeal, Singh also said he spent Rs 35 lakh to migrate to the US for a better life but his dreams of doing something good for the family are dashed now. The latest batch of illegal migrants included around 50 people from Haryana's Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Jind and Panipat districts, officials said. A plane carrying them landed at the Delhi airport late on Saturday night. The...

The dream of a better life in the US has ended for Harjinder Singh of Jagoli village in Ambala, who was deported on Sunday after being caught for illegal stay. Harjinder, who went to the US in 2021, said he had dreamt of working hard and earning well for his family’s future. But his hopes were crushed when US authorities deported him under the Trump administration’s policy of removing illegal immigrants. “They should have deported us with dignity instead of sending us in chains. We remained in chains for nearly 25 hours. There is swelling in my legs and other...

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a Strategic Partnership Treaty with Venezuela on Monday, formalizing a broad cooperation agreement between the two countries that extends across political, economic, and security domains. The Kremlin said the treaty, first signed in Moscow on May 7, expands collaboration in energy, mining, transport, communications, and counterterrorism. The accord was ratified last week by both chambers of Russia's parliament and earlier this month by the Venezuelan National Assembly, followed by President Nicolás Maduro's signature on October 7. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the simultaneous ratification "very important in the current situation," saying...

Vladimir Putin’s wartime economy has been resilient in the face of Western sanctions triggered by his invasion of Ukraine, but it’s hitting a wall and U.S. pressure on the energy sector could cause a recession, according to experts. Massive defense spending has propped up growth, kept factories humming, and pushed unemployment lower, while Moscow has relied on allies like China for goods no longer available from the West. “But the country has exhausted its reserves of manufacturing capacity and manpower,” Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and former Russian central bank advisor, wrote in Foreign Affairs...

In the video, Harold Weinbrecht, the mayor of Cary, and TJ Cully, the mayor of Morrisville, are seen grooving to the iconic song 'Chunri-Chunri' alongside other performers at an event. Diwali 2025 In America: Diwali, a festival that marks the victory of good over evil and is one of the major festivals in India, illuminates the US cities as the Indian community abroad celebrates the occasion. The festive spirit can also be seen in many countries around the world, with North Carolina, USA, being a glittering example. Two mayors in North Carolina danced their hearts out to the tunes of...

As Indian citizens face a dramatic downturn in overseas career prospects amid restrictive US immigration policies, students and professionals are closely watching President Donald Trump’s next move. For a nation that contributes the largest number of H-1B visa holders globally, the new policy has left many—especially those nearing graduation—scrambling to reassess their plans and explore alternatives elsewhere. “The announcement landed like a seismic shock,” said Chell Roberts, Dean of the University of San Diego. “It has disrupted the aspirations of students, families, and companies who have long viewed the H-1B as a bridge to opportunity.” -snip- A 26-year-old from Guntur,...

Companies could face probes into their compliance with the H-1B visa program as part of the Trump Administration’s effort to clamp down on the program and force companies to hire more Americans. The Department of Labor announced on Friday that it was launching Project Firewall, an “enforcement initiative” that will investigate employers for potential abuse of the H-1B visa process. The initiative may be the first time the federal government has sought to broadly enforce H-1B legal standards intended to protect both the H-1B employee and American workers, such as paying wages on par with other workers of similar qualifications...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American colleague Donald Trump discussed in a telephone conversation on Thursday the possible supply of US Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said. During the call, Putin told Trump that Tomahawk missiles would not change the situation on the battlefield, but would harm relations between Moscow and Washington and minimize the chances of a positive settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, according to Ushakov. Furthermore, the official revealed that Trump pledged to take into consideration all of Putin's concerns during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday at the White...

A growing push in the US to curtail OPT and tax or restrict foreign student work is rattling Indian students. Policy shifts, surprise site visits and H-1B fee changes are shrinking the post-study path in the US. When students finish degrees in the US, they often rely on Optional Practical Training (OPT) to transition from F1 student visas to H1-B work visas and build a career in the US. That safety net is now increasingly under threat. Senator Tom Cotton’s OPT Fair Tax Act was already spelling trouble. Now, Senator Chuck Grassley and others are urging DHS (Department of Homeland...

The number of new FHA mortgages granted to non-permanent residents has dropped to near-zero following the Trump administration’s recent executive orders targeting immigrants, according to new data. In a March 26 letter, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that non-permanent residents in the United States, including H-1B visa holders, would no longer be eligible for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), effective May 25. The move, the letter said, was in line with President Donald Trump’s “commitment to safeguarding economic opportunities for U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents,” while also ensuring that “federal benefits, including access...

Trump’s staunch supporter and Conservative US leader Charlie Kirk, who died on September 10 after being shot at an event in Utah, just days before his death said that America does not need more visas for Indians. Kirk’s controversial post on X resurfaced in which he said America was “full" and it was time to put “our own people first". The 31-year-old had built a strong following among youth through his posts and podcast. His remarks were termed ‘xenophobic’ by critics who said they undermined bilateral ties and innovation pipelines.

Amid H-1B tensions, two Indian-origin executives, Srinivas Gopalan and Rahul Goyal, rise to top US leadership roles, defying Make America Great Again (MAGA) hardliners and reshaping America's corporate landscape. At a time when the Donald Trump-led US administration is tightening H-1B visa rules, two major American companies on Monday bucked the trend by promoting India-born leaders to top positions. T-Mobile, the US telecom giant, will see Srinivas “Srini” Gopalan, 55, step into the CEO role on November 1. Gopalan, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, currently serves as T-Mobile’s Chief Operating Officer and will succeed Mike Sievert, who has led the...

Amid H-1B tensions, two companies, T-Mobile and Molson Coors, have announced their newly elected CEOs—both of Indian origin. T-Mobile appointed Srinivasan Gopalan, and Molson Coors appointed Rahul Goyal as the next CEO. “T-Mobile today announced that it has named current Chief Operating Officer Srini Gopalan as T-Mobile’s next Chief Executive Officer, effective November 1, 2025. Gopalan will assume the role from Mike Sievert, who has been appointed to a newly created management position at T-Mobile, Vice Chairman,” T-Mobile wrote in a statement. In a LinkedIn post, Gopalan shared that he is “deeply honoured” to take on the role of CEO....

Vice President JD Vance blasted Big Tech companies for firing American workers and then claiming they need visas for foreign labor Wednesday. The H-1B visa program allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers for specialty occupations and is overwhelmingly used by the tech industry. However, it has long been controversial for some conservatives, who say it is abused by tech companies to bring in cheap, predominantly Indian, labor to replace American workers. Vance spoke with The All-In podcast hosts on a panel at the "Winning the AI Race" AI Summit in Washington, D.C. The Vice President noted that while some...

Among issues Charlie Kirk took a strong stand against was immigration, even legal immigration stemming from H1B visas that many Indian students and professionals use. “America does not need more visas for people from India. Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We’re full. Let’s finally put our own people first,” he said in a post on X on September 1 He was responding to a Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham’s post suggesting that a US-India trade deal might involve more visas for Indian professionals. In a subsequent post on...

Immigration-focused narratives, especially those related to H-1B visas and portraying Indians as “job stealers” dominated online discourse on X, amplifying xenophobia and fueling calls for deportation and denaturalization, according to a new report. The report, Anti-Indian Racism on X: Causes, Trends, and Narratives, released by The Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) today documents a surge in anti-Indian racism on the American microblogging platform between July and September 2025. The 680 high-engagement posts analyzed for this report amassed more than 281 million views, underscoring the scale of online racism targeting Indian communities, according to CSOH. Notably, August saw...

A highly anticipated city council meeting Thursday could start the process of potentially removing a member of the council. Palm Bay Community Correspondent James Sparvero reported Tuesday that Councilman Chandler Langevin is back on the hot seat over what he said on social media about Indian visa holders and immigrants. Langevin said these Indians don’t care about America, are destroying the South, and should all be deported. -snip- “If someone only hires Indians, sends remittance checks back to India, campaigns in Indian elections, lobby’s (sic) to fly Indian flags over American government buildings, and has no family willing to serve...

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) will introduce a bill on Tuesday that would sharply reduce the number of H-1B migrants working in U.S. white-collar jobs. The bill, to be announced Tuesday morning, would begin to count visa renewals as new visas, so ending the current practice of allowing unlimited renewals for most of the 85,000 visas granted to companies each year. The unlimited renewals policy allows roughly 750,000 H-1B visa holders to retain white-collar, career-track jobs that would otherwise have gone to young U.S. graduates. Without the exemption, the number of company-employed H-1B visa holders would drop to roughly 250,000. The...

Diethylene glycol (DEG) is an organic compound that is commonly used as an industrial solvent in antifreeze mixtures and brake fluids. But, in India, DEG is ending up with worrying frequency where it should never be – in cough syrups for children. The repeated presence of this toxic substance in medicines has had devastating, fatal consequences in India and abroad, while also bringing the country’s lax drug regulatory set-up under intense scrutiny. In the latest instance of such contamination, at least 22 children have been killed since September in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan after consuming Coldrif,...