President Donald Trump promised a more protectionist regime during the presidential campaign, arguing that NAFTA, the free trade agreement between the US, Mexico and Canada, killed jobs in America. One of Trump’s first executive orders was to pull the US out of the Trans Pacific Partnership, a mega trade deal being negotiated by countries on the rim of the Pacific Ocean.
The US Congress has initiated moves to impose curbs on H1B visas for skilled workers, which is a threat to India's tech sector. The narrative fueled by Trump is that the liberal visa regime has enabled US firms to hire foreigners at the expense of Americans.
The protectionist nature of the Trump administration was underlined in the President's inaugural address where he said that "Protectionism will lead to great prosperity and strength." Trump also added: "We will follow two simple rules: buy American and hire American."
The protectionist action by the United States comes on the back of attacks on people of Indian origin. An Indian engineer, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was shot dead by a White American who shouted "get out of my country" as he opened fire in a bar in Kansas.
Last week, an Indian-origin convenience store owner Harnish Patel was found dead. Gun shot wounds were found on his body. In another incident, a Sikh man named Deep Rai was shot by a stranger outside his home in Washington. A video was recently uncovered in an anti-immigration website showing a man secretly filming Indian families at an Ohio park and commenting that the "Indian crowd" had "ravished the Mid-west".
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