White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on January 7, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Airlines are bracing for more disruptions. Representational file image.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.S. government’s latest decision to impose a one-time $1,00,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications — a steep jump from the current fee of a few thousand dollars — is likely to hit young Indian women applicants the hardest, according to data.

H-1B visa workers are predominantly male. In FY24, among workers approved for continuing their jobs (extending or changing their jobs), 74% were men and only 26% were women. The below chart shows the approved H-1B beneficiaries by type of petition and gender in FY 2024 (in %)

Among workers approved for initial employment, 37% were women. This indicates that while men historically dominated the pool of H-1B holders, women are catching up as their share is relatively high among fresh applications. As the new fee targets new applicants, women’s prospects look dim.

Also, the annual salaries earned by for those seeking initial employment through the H-1B route are relatively low. For instance, if we line up 100 H-1B beneficiaries approved for initial employment in FY24, the bottom quarter (25th percentile) earned about $77,000, the middle worker (50th percentile) earned $97,000, and the top quarter (75th percentile) earned around $1,30,000 or more. Among continuing workers, the bottom quarter earned about $1,02,000, the middle-range salary was $1,32,000, and the top quarter earned above $1,69,000. The below chart shows the annual compensation of H-1B beneficiaries by petition type in FY2024 (Figures in $)

With the new visa cost consuming most or even all of the workers’ annual pay, sponsoring initial employment beneficiaries may become economically unviable for employers. This raises questions about the future of the H-1B programme for new entrants. For instance, if a company sponsors a new beneficiary, the total cost in the first year will far exceed that of supporting an experienced worker seeking continued employment.

This impact will be particularly felt on women beneficiaries, as they generally earn less than men in the H-1B programme, especially in the bottom quarter of workers. If we line up 100 H-1B beneficiaries who were approved for initial employment in FY24, the bottom quarter of women earned about $71,000 compared with the $80,000 that men earned. At the median level, women earned $91,000, while men earned $99,000. In the top quarter, women earned $1,25,000, while men earned $1,31,000. Across all percentiles, women H-1B workers earned less than men, which makes it an even tougher choice for employers to sponsor them. The below chart shows the annual compensation of H-1B beneficiaries (initial employment) by gender in FY2024 (Figures in $)

This peculiar skew is more pronounced among Indian women beneficiaries than those from most other countries. For instance, if we examine India and China alone, which together accounted for 83% of the beneficiaries in FY24, the gender skew is evident in India but not in China. Among Chinese H-1B workers, the share of women and men were similar in both categories: new workers and those continuing employment. The below chart shows approved H-1B beneficiaries by type of petition and gender in FY2024, among Indians and Chinese (by birth place)

The burden of the new fee also falls heavily on younger applicants, particularly women. Among women approved for new jobs in FY24, 75% were under 35 years of age, compared with 65% of men. This means the entry cost will hit a larger share of women who are beginning their careers . The below chart shows the H-1B petitions approved (initial employment) by age and gender of beneficiaries in FY 2024

Among women approved for new employment in FY24, 44% had completed a Master’s degree, compared with only 39% of men. The share of women with a Bachelor’s degree alone was lower. At the doctorate and professional levels, the difference between men and women was negligible. Since the new fee applies only to new petitioners, it will impact women more heavily, despite their higher educational qualifications relative to men. The below chart shows the H-1B petitions approved (initial employment) by level of education and gender of beneficiaries

While much of the above data refers to H-1B beneficiaries in general, the picture is largely shaped by Indians who made up 60% of the female and 75% of the male beneficiaries in FY24. As a result, the overall trends largely reflect what Indian H-1B workers earn, study, and how they are distributed by age.

Published – September 23, 2025 07:00 am IST

If an alien were to gain insights into the immigrant ‘situation’ currently playing out in the US, the Netflix show Mo would act as a good gateway. Except, it might lead the alien to believe that there are no Indian immigrants, legal or illegal, in the US.

Mo, the semi-autobiographical comedy created by Palestinian-American comic Mo Amer, along with Egyptian-American Ramy Youssef, traces the life of Mohammad ‘Mo’ Najjar, whose family arrived in Houston two decades ago as Palestinian asylum seekers from Kuwait. Through two seasons, the series has captured the hopes, dreams, despair, deceit, dehumanisation, discriminatory cultural practices, etc., that define the immigrant experience. Mo’s family is the vehicle through which the heated ongoing debate on immigration in the US is carried to different parts of the world in an airy, easy manner. Quite in contrast with military aircrafts full of deported illegal immigrants.

Where Are The Indians?

Mo grew up in Houston, speaking Arabic, Spanish, and English, and has hustled all his life to take care of his family after his father’s death. His struggles are everyone’s struggles, only exacerbated by the undocumented status of his family. His social circle is full of other immigrants to the US—Africans, Hispanics, Arabs, and everyone else in between. 

But, what about Indians? 

It is interesting that despite living in Houston, a city with the largest South Asian population in the US, Mo has managed to steer clear of them in both seasons. Just like Mo has managed to steer clear of October 7, 2023. According to the 2020 census, Houston is home to about 165,000 Indians, the seventh-largest in the US. 

On Culture And Divide

After Hispanic and Vietnamese immigrants, Indians account for the single largest immigrant community in Houston. So why does Mo never interact with one? He grew up in Alief, a working-class suburb in southwest Houston, which was the most culturally and ethnically diverse school district in the US in 1996. A news report on Alief in 2006 sums it up succinctly in one sentence: “The district’s 47,000 students speak nearly 70 tongues.” Yet, we do not see a single Indian in Mo’s immigrant universe. 

Could it be owing to the cultural insularity that Indian immigrants are (in)famous for? A Carnegie survey from 2021 found, “Indian Americans—especially members of the first generation—tend to socialise with other Indian Americans. Internally, the social networks of Indian Americans are more homogenous in terms of religion than either Indian region (state) of origin or caste”. Another relevant finding is that “divisions in India are being reproduced within the Indian American community”. 

Is it, then, possible that Indian immigrants, primarily Hindus, choose to have minimal consociational engagement with Mo’s community? Maybe, therefore, Indians are not even a footnote in Mo’s story. 

Mo is not entirely blameless, either. Devout Muslims, the Najjars are uncomfortable with the idea of embracing non-Muslims in the family’s fold. Religion dictates their worldview as much as their regional identity as “stateless” Palestinians. Yusra, Mo’s mother, disapproves of his relationship with Mexican Maria, who wears her Catholicism on her sleeve as a tattoo. When Maria starts a rebound relationship with an Israeli-Jewish guy called Guy, she does so knowing that Mo won’t be able to forgive that, thus making it easier for her to move on.

An ‘Elite’ Immigrant

Or, maybe there’s another explanation for the absence of Indian immigrants in this beloved story of the immigrant realities in the US. A 2023 Pew survey shows that the median income of the immigrant Indian households is “greater than the median household income among Asian Americans overall”. So, Mo’s tattoo artist friend, who is also doubling as an emergency surgeon suturing his bullet graze, and his codeine dealer, a fellow hustler, is a man of Southeast Asian/Chinese origin. It is the underbelly of the immigrant American society that makes up Mo’s universe. 

Mo, however, is an ‘elite’ immigrant. He realises this when he spends time first in a cartel’s and later in a “coyote’s” dungeon in Mexico, holding prospective illegals with an American dream. Even though Mo’s family is struggling financially, they didn’t have to undertake a life-threatening journey to the US. However, many of those currently being deported to India had to. After paying a hefty sum—almost as much as the Rolling Stone figure of $10,000 quoted by Nick, Mo’s childhood friend. Yet, upon landing in the US territory, is the shared misery of the mule “dunki” route forgotten in the race to realise the American dream? 

As per the World Bank, India received $125 billion in remittances, a much more significant sum than the $71.92 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2023-24. Undocumented immigrants, living and working under deportation fears, send a bigger chunk of their earnings back home. Maybe this is why Indians do not frequent gaming arcades and clubs that Mo and his friends often haunt. And those who can afford doing so prefer to socialise among their own.

Whatever the reasons are, Indians’ absence from this saga of immigration is conspicuous and demands a think about the home and the world. 

(The author is a Delhi-based author and academic.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Washington DC:

US President Donald Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk a video posted by the White House showing immigrants in shackles being prepared to board a deportation flight from Seattle. The footage shared by the White House on social media showed illegal immigrants being put in cuffs and shackles while being prepared to board a deportation flight.

It showed the law enforcement officials lifting heavy chains attached to handcuffs and shackles chains from a basket and arranged on the airport tarmac alongside four additional sets of restraints before they were put on the migrants as they boarded the plane.

The White House labelled the footage as an autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) video. ASMR refers to a tingly feeling some people experience when watching videos featuring unusual sounds, like whispering or fingernails tapping on a surface.

The video was later reposted by Elon Musk on his X handle with the caption “Haha wow”.

Haha wow https://t.co/PXFXpiGU0U

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 18, 2025

The post caught further flak from netizens who dubbed Musk’s reaction as “disgusting” and “dehumanising.”

“This is disgusting. The fact that you think this is funny speaks volumes,” commented an X user on Musk’s post. 

“You are pathetic, @elonmusk. A small man who laughs at a video of undocumented immigrants in shackles boarding a plan for being deported,” wrote another.

Another X user pointed out that the treatment of deportees by the US government was not just sad but also “dehumanising”.

US President Donald Trump has launched a massive crackdown on immigration, with illegal migrants, including Indians, being deported to their homelands. Thousands of undocumented immigrants have already been sent back, including those from Guatemala, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China among other countries.

However, questions have been raised over the treatment mated to these deported immigrants as they are being hackled and handcuffed on their way back home. 

When faced with difficulty directly deporting some migrants to their homelands, the US is also using Panama as a “stopover”, with Costa Rica expected to receive a similar flight of third-country deportees later today (February 19).

It’s a new phase in the Ukraine war as the Trump administration moves to hold talks with Russia without the presence of Ukraine or Europe. The Saudis will be in the mediating role, and the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, Trump’s Middle East special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, all will be part of this enterprise, which might end up upending American policy of the last three years. It’s a spectacular shift in Washington, and Europe is left scrambling for a response.

Though Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said that Ukraine would “never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement”, it’s not readily evident what options he has at this juncture when the US seems more than ready to walk away from European security. Zelenskyy’s call for the creation of an “army of Europe” came after US Vice-President JD Vance underlined the Trump administration’s perspective that Europe must “step up in a big way to provide for its own defence”. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also made it clear that European nations must provide the “overwhelming” share of funding for Ukraine. More interestingly, he also said that it was “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to return to its pre-2014 borders, and downplayed the prospect of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

A ‘Once In A Generation’ Moment

Though it was expected that the Trump presidency will bring its own set of challenges for Europe, there seems to be a complete rethink on the parameters of the US-Europe partnership. In response, European leaders are in Paris trying to hammer out a response to what UK leader Keir Starmer has described as a “once in a generation” moment for national security. Starmer himself has suggested that he is ready to place UK peacekeeping troops in Ukraine “to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine”. Germany is also offering to do the same, but it might be too late in the game.

After investing three years of resources as well as diplomatic and military capital in trying to fend off Russian territorial advances, along with the US standing as an ally, the shift in the tone and tenor of American support might be disconcerting. For many in Europe, the danger might be that in the name of peace, Trump would strike a deal with Putin, putting Europe at a perpetual disadvantage. That the long-term costs of short-term political expediency will be borne by Europe is the fear that is now shaping European response.

When Vance warned his audience at the Munich Security Conference that they should fear neither Moscow nor Beijing but European leadership itself, he went further than many in Europe had anticipated. His argument, that “shutting down” unorthodox viewpoints is the “most surefire way to destroy democracy”, and his calling upon European leaders to “embrace what your people tell you”, was aimed more at putting mainstream European political leadership in their place rather than trying to find a common ground with allies to tackle regional and global challenges.

Shifting Priorities

For the Trump administration, Europe and its security are no longer the priority that many in the continent would like to believe. For the US, the centre of gravity of global politics has been gradually shifting to the Indo-Pacific, and Trump’s policies are perhaps the most dramatic manifestation of this understanding. In his first term as President, Trump consistently challenged long-standing alliances, most notably NATO, questioning its relevance and urging European nations to increase their defence spending. His “America First” policy emphasised a transactional view of international relations, where the US would support Europe only if its allies contributed more to shared defence and economic goals. In his second term, Trump seems even more willing to shake the foundations of America’s partnership with Europe.

But Europe has been very slow in responding to these changing realities. Now, the task before its leaders is to ensure that their ability to shape the US-Europe partnership remains in place to some extent. In Paris, Europe will have to ensure that it comes to an agreement to spend and do more for its own defence. It will also have to see how it can provide for the security of Ukraine after a ceasefire. The blunt rhetoric emanating from Washington and a sense of unpredictability being ushered in due to Trump’s outreach to Putin has left European leaders uncertain about the future of transatlantic relations.

As Trump disrupts the global order, one of the first casualties seems to be Europe, which is now left wondering about the future of its own security. 

(Harsh V. Pant is Vice President for Studies at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

Chandigarh:

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee on Sunday strongly condemned US authorities for allegedly not allowing Sikh deportees, who were part of the second batch of illegal Indian immigrants brought from America, to wear their turbans.

The SGPC statement came after some visuals appeared on social media showing Sikh deportees without turbans while completing their immigration formalities at the Amritsar airport.

A US military aircraft carrying 116 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar airport late Saturday night, with one deportee claiming they were handcuffed with their legs chained during the journey. The fresh batch of deportees included 65 immigrants from Punjab, 33 from Haryana and eight from Gujarat.

SGPC officials, who were deputed for providing ‘langar’ and bus service for deportees on Saturday night at the airport, provided ‘dastar’ (turban) to Sikh deportees.

One of the Sikh deportees also claimed that when they landed at the Amritsar airport, they were not wearing turbans. He said that when they entered the US illegally, they were asked to remove their turbans.

SGPC general secretary Gurcharan Singh Grewal condemned the US authorities for allegedly not allowing them to wear their turbans.

It is a matter of regret that deportees were brought in shackles and Sikh deportees were not wearing turbans, he said.

Grewal said the SGPC will soon raise the issue with the US authorities. “Turban is the part of a Sikh,” he said.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia too condemned the US authorities for allegedly sending Sikh deportees without turbans.

He also urged the Ministry of External Affairs to immediately take up the matter with the US authorities so that such an incident is never repeated in future. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)