India Ready to Take Back 18,000 Nationals From US: Report
The PM Narendra Modi-led Indian government is ready to work with the Donald Trump-led US administration to identify and take back at least 18,000 Indians residing illegally in the US.
According to a Bloomberg report, the development comes as the Indian government has expressed its willingness to comply with the new US President and avoid a trade war. While the exact number of Indians residing illegally in the US remains unclear, the Indian government could potentially take back at least 18,000 citizens, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter.
Within hours of his inauguration Monday, Trump started to work on mobilizing troops on the US-Mexico border and crackdown on illegal migration.
“As part of India-US cooperation on migration and mobility, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration. This is being done to create more avenues for legal migration from India to the US,” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said, as quoted by the report. “The latest deportation of Indian nationals from the US by a chartered flight is a result of this cooperation,” he added, referring to an October repatriation action.
Indian citizens accounted for almost three-fourths of the 386,000 H-1B visas granted in 2023, as per official data. However, Mexico and Venezuela surpass India in the number of illegal immigration.
According to ICE data released in November 2024, around 17,940 Indians were among the 1.45 million people scheduled to be deported from the US.
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