Desi Talk

www.desitalk.com – that’s all you need to know 10 WASHINGTON, D.C. August 7, 2026 US-India Strategic Partnership Forum Releases Coffee Table Book Celebrating America’s 250th T he US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) launched the second edition of its coffee table book titled “We The People – 250 Voices: A Tribute to the 250 Voices that Shaped the U.S.–India Rela- tions” on Monday, June 29, at its flagship leader- ship summit inWashington, D.C. The summit themed America@250 celebrated the 250th year of American independence and culminated with the launch of the coffee table book, alongside a special launch video for the book. This edition recognizes 250 individuals across eras who represent diverse professions but have dedicated their professional endeavors to enhance U.S.-India rela- tions. The individuals range from artists and architects, academics and activists, diplomats and doctors, entre- preneurs and engineers, presidents and prime ministers, policymakers and pioneers, and alive and deceased. “In their own ways, knowingly or unknowingly, they all played a part in helping to shape the most robust strate- gic partnership that we celebrate today,” USISPF said in its press release. While acknowledging that the list by no means implies only these 250 individuals, both deceased and living are the ones who have shaped the relationship, “We know that there are many more who, some yet unknown to us, have shaped and will continue to transform the relation- ship,” but the book is meant to “honor 250 individuals both past and contemporary, who have built diplomatic and cultural bonds and enhanced the soft power compo- nent of this strategic partnership.” The book also chronicles historic figures such as Abra- ham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, alongside contemporary leaders from government, individuals who shaped the relationship from the highest corridors of political and corporate power such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Donald Trump, Ambassador Sergio Gor, Secre- tary of State Marco Rubio, India’s External Affairs Minis- ter, Dr. S. Jaishankar along with business leaders, such as Indra Nooyi, Shantanu Narayen, Ajay Banga as well intel- lectuals from science, academia, healthcare, diplomacy, and civil society, such as Anoushka Shankar, Shubhans- hu Shukla, Indira Nooyi, SunitaWilliams, Kumar Man- galam Birla, Priyanka Chopra, Ajit Doval, Stephen Knapp, Padma Lakshmi, His Holiness Dalai Lama, Hasan Minhaj, Mira Nair, Frieda Pinto, AR Rahman, Rathan Rajan, Julia Roberts. “At the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), our mission has always been to translate strategic intent into tangible outcomes,” said Dr. Mukesh Aghi, USISPF President and CEO. “We have seen firsthand how our work is carried forward both by institutions and by people who believe in the potential of this relationship and invest their energy, expertise, and ambition in its growth. This book is a tribute to those individuals.” USISPF’s first coffee table book, We The People – 75 Years of U.S.-India Relations launched in 2022, com- memorated the platinum jubilee of India’s independence and celebrated 75 years of U.S.-India diplomatic ties. The Indo American Arts Council, IAAC, praised USISPF’s latest coffee-table book noting some of the individuals selected in it were luminaries in arts and culture. “The Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC) proudly congratulates several of its longtime patrons, supporters, collaborators, and friends who have been featured in the second edition ofWe The People – 250 Voices: A Tribute to the 250 Voices that Shaped the U.S.-India Relationship, published by the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF),” IAAC said in its press release. It specifically identified India’s Consul General in NewYork, Binaya Sri- kanta Pradhan; John Guy, an acclaimed art historian and curator; HugoWeihe, historian and curator and former head of Christie’s Indian and Southeast Asian Art; and Purna Saggurti of Bank of America. By a StaffWriter Coffee Table book “We The People – 250 Voices: A Tribute to the 250 Voices that Shaped the U.S.–India Relations” being released at the June 29th USISPF Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. Seen in picture, Mukesh Aghi, president of USISPF, Ambassador Ken Juster (former US ambassador to India), and Ashok Bajaj, restaurateur – Knights Bridge Group. PHOTO:USISPF T he Trump administration is ramping up immigration-related detentions at airports nationwide, including in the D.C. area, accord- ing to advocates and attorneys, as part of what appears to be a new push targeting foreign nationals who have overstayed their visas. Six immigration lawyers interviewed by TheWashington Post said immigration of- ficials have stepped up enforcement at the three airports that serve the D.C. region, detaining passengers as they prepare to board or step off domestic flights. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had previously detained people with deportation orders at airports, the targeting of people who entered the country legally but now have expired visas is a new development, the lawyers said. Similar ICE enforcement actions involv- ing visa overstays have been reported at airports across the country, including in San Francisco, Houston and Denver, as the Trump administration looks to step up deportations, according to lawyers and media reports. “This administration is working dili- gently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport,” a spokes- person for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. Atenas Burrola Estrada, deputy pro- gram director at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said her group was aware of about a dozen arrests at Reagan National, Washington Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International Marshall (BWI) airports. “The profile of people who are being arrested has largely changed,” Burrola Estrada said. “It’s people who entered the country lawfully and then overstayed, many of them because they feared per- secution. Some of them have pending asylum applications, many of them seem to have work permits, and now they’re be- ing targeted for arrest.” “We’ve been saying for a while: If you don’t have permanent status, you should really consider whether it’s safe to fly,” Burrola Estrada added. “I think a lot of people were still flying, and it was safe, and that is clearly not the case anymore.” The arrests appear to stem from in- creased information sharing between ICE and the Transportation Security Adminis- tration. TSA last year began supplying ICE with data on passengers suspected to have been ordered deported. In May, the two agencies signed an information-sharing agreement, according to a memo pub- lished this week by the watchdog group American Oversight. “Information sharing between ICE and TSA is essential in identifying who is at- tempting to travel in our country, includ- ing violent criminals, to keep our skies and our country safe,” according to the DHS statement. In a social media post earlier this week, a coalition of immigrants’ rights groups reported an “uptick in detentions of noncitizens without status at DMV area airports” and advised passengers to assess their personal risk before flying. The recent D.C. arrests include mul- tiple foreign nationals who sought asylum because of a fear of persecution in their home countries. Paul, who spoke on the condition that The Post not use his last name for fear of retaliation, was detained by ICE officials at Dulles Airport late last week after he returned from a trip to Hawaii with his family. After the aircraft landed, Paul said, a flight attendant called him to the front of the plane, where two plainclothes ICE offi- cers were waiting to take him into custody. As he was being processed at an ICE field office in Virginia, Paul said, he began to feel his chest tighten and had difficulty breathing before he collapsed from a heart attack. He was rushed to a hospital, treat- ed and then released back to ICE custody. Authorities later released him under a preexisting ICE supervision arrangement, according to his attorney, Jay S. Marks. Paul’s next check-in with ICE is scheduled for September. Marks said Paul has an order withhold- ing his removal to his home country, India, based on the U.N. Convention Against Torture. “They can’t send him to his home country. They can send him to a third country, which they will likely do at some point,” he said. “It’s an entirely new level of aggressive- ness,” Marks said of the spike in airport arrests. “People think they’re simply taking a domestic flight. They’re going to see family or they’re going to do this or that. And in fact, ICE has triangulated with TSA and with the airlines and has now got this individual in their sights.” - TheWashington Post Lawyers Say ICE Is Expanding Its Arrests At Airports To New Targets; An Indian Asylee Cited Among Examples By Liam Bowman, Liam Scott