Free Republic

-snip- The suit cites the example of “Plaintiff Phoenix Doe,” to land its point. Doe is described as an Indian citizen residing in Northern California. She is a postdoctoral researcher whose cap-exempt H-1B petition has been halted due to the $100,000 fee. -snip- “As a result of the Proclamation, her university has indefinitely paused moving forward with the processing of her application.” “She is suffering debilitating stress and anxiety due to the uncertainty of her position, which exacerbates the PTSD from which she suffers. Without relief, Plaintiff Phoenix will be forced to leave her postdoctoral position the United States within...

A Florida city councilman is facing growing bipartisan calls for his removal after posting inflammatory comments about Indian Americans on social media and then doubling down on his remarks, triggering outrage from fellow Republicans, state legislators, and community members. Palm Bay City Councilman Chandler Langevin wrote on X.com about people who are from India, accusing those living in the country of exploiting the United States, according to Click Orlando. His posts, which called for the deportation of all Indians and a halt to migration from India, have been widely condemned as racist. Langevin stated last week on X: “There’s not...

US President Donald Trump’s decision to cap international undergraduate students to 15 per cent of a college, with no more than 5 per cent from any single country, has evoked sharp criticism from Telugu students, who form a considerable chuck from India seeking admission in American colleges. Vishvanath Reddy, a student from Hyderabad who is pursuing his masters’ in the US, said “This is deeply unfair to international students. Immigrant students, especially from India, are the lifeblood of universities in the US. Trump cannot just put a five per cent cap on students belonging to a particular nationality. This will...

“This is devastating. I can’t express it in words,” said one Indian technology professional in Silicon Valley to HT as news of US President Donald Trump’s H1-B visa fee hike spread on Saturday. “I’ve invested a lot of time here in America. I’m staying positive right now but there are times when it’s hard,” adds another Indian professional on an Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa, who was hoping to secure an H1B sponsorship and stay on in America after completing a master’s degree. A pervasive mood of fear and uncertainty looms large among many in the Indian diaspora, particularly young...

The White House has rolled out a memo, named A Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education to nine of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, including MIT, Dartmouth, and the University of Pennsylvania among others. The document dictates how universities should admit students, hire faculty, and shape campus life, linking compliance to federal rewards. At the heart of it lies a measure that could redefine the future of US higher education: a proposal to cap international undergraduate enrolment at 15 per cent. The nine-page directive goes further, restricting the number of students from any single country to no more than...

Milwaukee Public Schools announced in September that it would stop hiring new international teachers to help fill desperately needed empty positions. The change comes after the Trump administration announced it is overhauling the H-1B visa program, which MPS uses to fill the jobs. The H-1B program is designed to help U.S. employers hire international applicants to work in specialized industries like tech, education and engineering. The visa is limited to about three years and can be renewed. Among the changes is a hike in the fee for new applications to $100,000. Previously, it cost an employer around $3,000 to hire...

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 33-year-old Shreya Mishra Reddy, a technical program manager at Visa based in Austin. Business Insider has verified Reddy's employment, immigration status, and unsuccessful H-1B attempts. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I never dreamed of living in the US. I grew up in India and wanted to stay close to my parents. In December 2021, I moved to the States for a Master's program in engineering management at Duke University. After I graduated in 2022, I got a job at Visa as a technical program manager in 2023....

Four Indian students were rejected for U.S. visas after undergoing a new Trump-era social media screening. All were told they had failed to prove ties to India. Kaushik Raj felt like his future was falling into place. He’d just won a $100,000 scholarship to pursue a graduate degree in journalism at Columbia University. A U.S. visa was the only thing that stood between him and a new life in New York. Raj, 27, wasn’t overly concerned. He had completed every stage of the traditional application process. As a last step, he had to allow American authorities to vet his “online...

US Senators have asked India's largest IT firm TCS to furnish details about its hiring practices in the US, whether the company has displaced any Americans with H-1B workers, as well as wage parity between H-1B hires and its local US staff. In a recent letter to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO K Krithivasan, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and ranking member Richard Durbin noted that the company has announced plans to layoff over 12,000 employees worldwide, including American staff. TCS laid off nearly five dozen employees in its Jacksonville office alone, according to the letter. "At the same...

The Trump administration has stepped up unannounced inspections targeting foreign students in the United States under the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme, with a sharp focus on those in the two-year STEM OPT extension. Officials have even been visiting student residences and university housing facilities for verification, according to immigration attorneys, as reported by Lubna Kably in The Times of India. The Open Doors report for 2023-24 shows that 3.3 lakh Indian students were in the US, with nearly 97,556 enrolled in the OPT programme, many in STEM-OPT. This makes them one of the largest groups affected by the checks....

Immigration data show a nearly 50% drop in the number of international students from India arriving in July and August 2025 compared to the same period one year ago. The numbers indicate that U.S. universities may experience a significant decline in Indian and other international students in the 2025-26 academic year. Educators say the Trump administration’s policies, which included suspending visa interviews, have contributed to the decline. Universities worry that new immigration rules will also make it challenging to attract international students to the United States. -snip- India is the largest source country for international students to the United States....

Wednesday on CNN’s “The Lead,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said President Donald Trump’s AI video depicting the leader in a sombrero “was a xenophobic stereotype.” Host Jake Tapper said, “One last thing before you go. I know you said you thought it was racist and bigoted, that sombrero and mustache, an image that President Trump put out there.” Jeffries said, “It wasn’t simply my characterization that was a broad characterization by a broad number of people.” Tapper said, “JD Vance said he thought it was funny. Vice President Vance said he thought it was funny, and he said...