Immigrants are being significantly impacted by the ongoing mass layoffs in the US tech sector, particularly those who entered the US on H1-B visas from countries like China and India.
Those who have lost their employment are scrambling to find work in order to feed their families and, more crucially, to maintain their right to live in the US.
Layoffs destroy jobs and split up families as non-immigrant H1-B visa holders have just 60 days from the moment their employment ends to locate a new job, failing which they must leave the country, this is the case.
Numerous H1-B visa holders who have been laid off due to the recent layoffs are now at risk of being deported. Families are being torn apart because although the children of H1-B visa holders are legally allowed to remain in the US because they were born there and are therefore citizens, their parents may soon have to leave.
Not only individuals who have been fired are affected by the fear of deportation; other people who are concerned about losing their jobs are also affected.
One such event recently took a terrible turn when a teenager ran away from her house out of fear that she may be deported if her father lost his job.
In the US state of Arkansas, Tanvi Marupally, a 14-year-old Indian-American teenager, has been missing for more than three weeks.
Tanvi, a Conway, Arkansas, resident, was last observed in her neighbourhood on January 17 when she boarded a bus to go to school.
Tanvi’s relatives and the police think she may have left her house out of fear of being deported.
Due to increasing layoffs in the technology industry, her father, Pavan Roy Marupally, who works for a tech company, faced the prospect of losing his job.
Her mother, Sridevi Eadara, had previously lost her job and had to return to India by herself in order to petition for a visa as Pavan’s dependent. Before she could go back to be with her family, a year had passed.
Although Pavan is not currently in danger of losing his job, he warned her daughter that she must move to India until he finds a solution for the family if he loses his job.
Pavan said, “I said. Let you and your mom first go back to India, let me figure out what and how the system works out, get a proper job, and then call you back.”
“What, go back to India? Why should I go back to India? I’ve been here,” the teenager replied. Her parents think the idea of having their daughter uprooted from her home in the US was too much for her.
