Srinivas Kuchibhotla Became a Hate Crime Victim. His wife, Sunayana Dumala Became a Widow and now Battles Deportation

• Wife Sunayana Dumala realized that her husband’s death would put her immigration status in jeopardy.

• They had already been waiting for permanent residency for seven years, Sunayana Dumala was dependent on her husband’s H-1B visa to stay in the US. Srinivas was on an H1B visa, while Sunayana was on an H4 dependent visa.

• She was assisted by immigration attorneys from her workplace-Intouch Solutions, and her husband’s company-Garmin and Rep. Kevin Yoder, the Republican congressman from suburban Kansas, advocated for her case with immigration and customs officials, as well. Dumala applied for two different visas: an H-1B sponsored by her company and a U visa, which is reserved for victims of crime.

  She returned to work as a database developer.

• Her husband’s company, Garmin, her Intouch Solutions company and Rep. Kevin Yoder, the Republican congressman from Kansas, advocated for her case with immigration and customs officials.

• She join more than 80 advocates on a trip to DC to promote the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, a bill sponsored by Yoder. This cosponsors, would phase out the country cap, eventually allowing the green cards to be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis

• She’s on a 12-month work authorization while she waits for her visa to be approved.

Recalling their meeting in 2006, their long friendship and marriage in 2012, Sunayana wrote that Srinivas gave her the courage to pursue her dream of coming to the US and studying, and this made her an independent, self-sufficient and strong woman.

"I started working only recently, May 2016. He'd played a major role in me attaining a job," said Sunayana, who worked at Intouch Solutions in Kansas at the time.

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During Trump's campaign, President Donald Trump assailed a skilled-worker visa program used to send foreigners to the U.S., and in his inaugural speech he said the country would “follow two simple rules; buy American and hire American.”

What is this administration going to do to end the abuse of the H-1B visa? Answer is simple..... Computer programmers may no longer be eligible for H-1B visas.

They know about the abuse because they clearly discussed the abuse during the election. That is the reason that many tech workers support and continue to support Donald Trump.

2 Indian Engineers Are Shot in Kansas-One Killed and Two Injured

Kansas City, Feb 24, 2017// NRIpress.club/Ram Partap

Two of the three victims of Wednesday’s shooting at an Olathe bar, including the man who was killed, worked on aviation systems at Garmin Ltd.

The company sent an email to employees on Thursday

“As many of you may have heard, last night, there was a triple shooting at Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe. Unfortunately, two associates on our Aviation Systems Engineering team, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, were shot. We are devastated to inform you that Srinivas passed away and Alok is currently recovering in the hospital.”

Later, the company issued a public statement:

“We’re saddened that two Garmin associates were involved in last night’s incident, and we express our condolences to the family and friends of our co-workers involved. Garmin will have grievance counselors on-site and available for its associates today and tomorrow.

Two GoFundMe pages have been set up for the Garmin workers.

Contributors had pledged nearly $7,400 by early afternoon Thursday.

The other GoFundMe page was set up by someone who said he was not personally connected to either of the victims or their families but was upset about what appeared to be “a vicious hate crime.”

“Madasani will likely face extensive medical bills and the family of Kuchibhotla will now have to deal with the death of their beloved son, both financially and emotionally,” the message said.

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Mistaken for ‘Middle Easterner’, Indian-origin man killed in US

New York, Feb 24, 2017: An Indian-origin man was killed and another injured by a former Navy serviceman who mistook them for “Middle Easterners”, officials said.

The man also shot and injured a non-Indian American who is hailed as a hero as he tried to protect the two during the attack on Wednesday night in Olathe, Kansas State.

Srinivas Kuchibhotla died and Alok Madasani was injured when Adam W. Purinton shot them at a bar after telling them “get out of my country”, The Kansas City Star quoted a witness as saying.

The Hindu American Foundation’s (HAF) called the attacks a hate crime. But officials had not classified it a hate crime as of Thursday night, saying they were investigating the angle.

Ian Grillot, 24, who came to their rescue, and Madasani were in hospital recovering from their injuries.

Purinton was arrested in Clinton city of neighbouring Missouri state when a bartender reported to police about him saying that he had killed “two Middle Eastern men”, according to local police quoted by The Star.

“It was a tragic and senseless act of violence,” Olathe Police chief Steven Menke said.

According to his profile on LinkedIn, Kuchibhotla, 32, graduated from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad in 2005 with an electrical engineering degree.

He received a master’s degree from the University of Texas in El Paso and was working as an aviation programmes manager with Garmin, an electronics manufacturer best known for its consumer navigation systems.

The manager at Rockwell Collins, Kuchibhotla’s former employer, Rod Larson, told the Star: “He was very sharp. A top-of-his-class kind of guy. His personality was exceptional.”

Madasani, 32, was a graduate of the Vasavi College of Engineering in Hyderabad. He was also a manager at Garmin.

The HAF condemned the attacks describing the killings as “the first reported bias-motivated fatality in the US after the bitter presidential election”.

“We call upon the US Department of Justice and local law enforcement to investigate this murder as what it is, a hate crime,” Jay Kansara, HAF’s Director of Government Relations, said.

“Anything less will be an injustice to the victims and their families.”

Federal officials on Thursday joined local public prosecutor Steve Howe when he charged Purinton with pre-meditated and attempted murder.

According to The Star, federal officials said they were investigating to determine if the attack bias-motivated hate crime.

The Star reported that acting federal prosecutor for Kansas, Tom Beall, said his office would be evaluating the case and “there will probably be more to come later from us”......IANS

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