US President-elect Donald Trump is expected to take office in less than a month and stricter immigration policies have already been implemented.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a list of 1.45 million people slated for deportation, including nearly 18,000 undocumented Indians.
For many undocumented Indians, the process of legalizing their status is fraught with administrative challenges, with waiting times of up to two or three years.
However, India is not a country with a large number of undocumented immigrants. Countries bordering the United States, such as Honduras and Guatemala, top the list, with 261,000 and 253,000 undocumented people, respectively.
In Asia, China leads with 37,908 undocumented people, while India ranks 13th, with 17,940, according to ICE data published in November 2024.
Under the current border security and strict immigration policies, India is classified as one of the “non-cooperating” countries in the deportation process. Other countries on this list include Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and Venezuela. This lack of cooperation may cause other challenges in diplomatic relations.
The ICE document cited difficulties in “conducting negotiations, issuing timely travel documents, and accepting the return of nationals via scheduled commercial or chartered flights in accordance with ICE and/or foreign government removal guidelines.”
As Trump has promised to carry out the largest deportation effort in American history, thousands of undocumented Indians with final deportation orders will be sent back to India.
In the past three years, nearly 90,000 Indians have been arrested while trying to cross into the United States illegally, many from states like Punjab, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, according to reports.
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Time magazine after being named “Person of the Year” for 2024, US President-elect Donald Trump said he would make business “very difficult” for countries that refuse to take back migrants. He added that such countries would face “huge taxes.”
“I’m going to put them in every country, or we’re not going to do business with those countries,” Trump said.
“I want them to leave, and countries should send them back. If they do not return them, we will not do business with those countries, and we will charge them high prices,” he added.
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