Indian students and the death of the American Dream

Kabir has spent the past few months running. Every morning, before the California sun begins to glare on the cracked sidewalks, he slips on his shoes and bolts out the door. The run, he says, is what keeps him sane. “It’s the only time I can make a plan. What to say to the lawyer. Which papers to organise. Who to call for help.” How not to fall apart.Kabir (name changed on request), who had arrived from Pune to study at the University of California, had his student visa revoked along with thousands of others across the country. The email had come without warning. It had given him no time to prepare. Just a sudden vanishing of the ground beneath his feet. He hasn't stopped running since. “I got this news on April 2, just a day after Eid. I had wanted to go home, but couldn't in these circumstances,” he says.

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And now, it may be a long while before he can. His Eid kurta and suit are still on the hanger, waiting to be worn. His apartment still carries the remnants of a celebration that didn't last. A few half-deflated balloons cling to the ceiling — a bittersweet memory, as just a few days before his visa revocation, he had won the H-1B lottery (a random selection process by which a limited number of H-1B visas are allotted every year). Many Indian students have been targeted as a part of the Trump administration's actions against universities and immigrants.