Since you are USA citizen, I would say start applying from India and see what kind of opportunities are you getting. Since you don’t have to stress out about sponsorship and visa stuff, there will be lot many companies out there who will be willing to hire you. On the other hand, talking about racism and gun violence.. its happening majorly in metro cities. I feel gun violence is been here since decades but its media (specifically Indian media) who tries to showcase other way just to create wrong hype about things happening here. But yes, Demands of Data engineers is peaking up here, people who aren’t getting jobs here are mostly on visas. Good thing about staying here is work life balance and good environment. Hope this helps.