Indian Americans fret over Big Beautiful law

On July 4, as Americans marked the 249th anniversary of the nation’s founding, President Donald Trump signed into law his signature legislative achievement: The “One Big Beautiful Bill”.

- Frank F Islam

Spanning nearly 900 pages, the legislation overhauls the US tax code, boosts spending on defense, border security, and infrastructure, and introduces a wide array of industry-specific incentives and subsidies.

In addition, the law slashes funding for some entitlement programmes, most notably Medicaid, to help offset the cost of tax cuts. Yet, it will still add an estimated $3 trillion to the national deficit of the US over the next decade.

While the bill's sweeping provisions will affect virtually all Americans, immigrant communities, including Indian Americans, are poised to face a wide range of challenges due to its provisions.

One of the many contentious elements of the legislation is the $170 billion allocated for border security and immigration enforcement. Of that, $75 billion — which is roughly the size of the entire annual defence budget of India — is set aside as additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency that has drawn widespread criticism in recent months for its aggressive detention of undocumented immigrants and controversial deportation tactics.

For the Indian diaspora in the US, recent enforcement actions have already provided a sobering preview of what expanded ICE funding could mean.

India ranks second only to Mexico as the country of birth for immigrants in the US. According to the Pew Research Center, 6% of all US immigrants were born in India. Indian nationals also make up one of the largest undocumented immigrant populations in the country, estimated at approximately 725,000, trailing only Mexico and El Salvador.