Indian-American running for US Congress promised immigration reform world news

Currently, Virginia state senator Subramaniam (38) is running for the Democratic Party in Virginia's 10th Congressional District. If elected, he will join the Congress' Samosa caucus, which currently consists of five Indian-Americans: Ami Bera, Raja Krishnamurthy, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jaipal and Sri Thanadar.

I am running for the United States Congress to represent the area just outside Dulles Airport in Washington, DC. We are confident that we can win this election if everyone comes out and votes. I will be the first Indian-American candidate elected to Congress from the entire East Coast and Southern United States. There are five members of Congress now, I will be the sixth, and I think we hope that having a seat at the table will be a good thing for our community, he said.

Subramaniam said he would solve the immigration issue. You know, people talk about boundaries. We will have safe borders here and I will invest in that. We also need to look at legal immigration and what we can do for people on H1B visas and those who are applying for a green card but have to wait 10-15 years. He said that we have a very old quota system in the country.

I would like us to address this because I believe there are countries, especially India, that have so much talent that can play a big role in our economic future and make a big contribution to America. “I see them living in my neighborhood in Virginia, I see the struggle and I want to make sure we deal with it in a meaningful way,” she said.

Calling for comprehensive immigration reform, Subramaniam said it must address, among other things, border security. If we do everything at once, it will be the best way. In short, if this is to be held up by fighting and quarreling, let's at least try to resolve the issue of quotas for certain countries, or at least try to change the status of those who are here, who are doing the right thing. .

Whether it is five or ten years, if they are here for a certain period of time, they should be able to change their status so that they do not have to leave the country if a situation arises where they need to renew their status or may be released. So I want to make sure that we're really looking at this issue from a broader perspective, but at least dealing with the low-hanging fruit that everyone agrees on, said an Indian-American state legislator.

Subrahmanyam's parents came to the United States through Dulles Airport in the late 1970s.

Dulles Airport was like their Ellis Island and when they came here they wanted a better life and we never imagined that someone like me, Suhas Subramaniam, could be in the US Congress. “But we want to make it a reality, and that starts with people getting out and voting in Virginia in November,” he said.

My mother is from Bangalore and my father is from Chennai. He also spent a lot of time in Secunderabad because his father was in the army, so there was a military base there. They decided to come here to make a better life for themselves. She said my mother especially liked the idea of ​​becoming a doctor in America.

He and my father met in medical school in Bangalore and then came here in the late 1970s. They just taught me some values. First of all, service is very important, it gives something back and creates a beautiful life. Education is also important. One of the things they asked me to do was to stay connected to my Indian roots. That's why I always returned to India in the summer. I still have family there. “It's very important to me to continue this tradition, and not just run because I'm Indian-American, but I have a lot of ideas that I want to implement, but also run with pride in my background and heritage,” she said.

Replying to a question, Subrahmanyam favored strengthening ties between India and the US.

The US-India relationship is so important because India is one of the most important democracies in the world. That's why we want to make sure that we have good relations with other democracies around the world, he said.

The United States and India have a naturally strong relationship. A large number of Indian-Americans live here. We have a large Indian diaspora. Many Indian students come here to study. Many American companies have offices in India. We have a strong economic partnership. I think now we can start to understand what a defense partnership can mean and how we can cooperate on technology transfer, just having common strategic defense goals. I think that in the long run these will be very important relations for both countries. And I think that's something that, even apart from the fact that I'm an American, will be really good for our country in the future, he said.