US President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in a month and stricter immigration policies are already being implemented.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released a list stating 1.45 million people are slated for deportation, including nearly 18,000 undocumented Indians.
For many undocumented Indians, the process of legalising their status is fraught with bureaucratic challenges, with waiting periods stretching up to two or three years.
However, India is not the country with the largest number of undocumented immigrants. Countries bordering the United States, such as Honduras and Guatemala, top the list, with 261,000 and 253,000 undocumented individuals respectively.
In Asia, China leads with 37,908 undocumented individuals, while India ranks 13th, with 17,940, according to the ICE data published in November 2024.
Under the current border security and stricter immigration policies, India has been classified as one of the “uncooperative” countries in the deportation process. Other nations on this list include Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and Venezuela. This lack of cooperation could pose further challenges in diplomatic relations.
The ICE document mentioned the difficulties in “conducting interviews, issuing travel documents in a timely manner, and accepting the physical return of their nationals by scheduled commercial or charter flights in accordance with ICE and/or foreign government removal guidelines.”
Since Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation effort in American history, thousands of undocumented Indians with final orders of deportation will be sent back to India.
Over the past three years, approximately 90,000 Indians were apprehended while attempting to cross into the United States illegally, with many hailing from states such as Punjab, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, according to the reports.
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Time magazine after being named the 2024 “Person of the Year,” US President-elect Donald Trump stated that he would make business “very hard” for countries that refuse to take back migrants. He added that such countries would face “substantial tariffs.”
“I’ll get them into every country, or we won’t do business with those countries,” Trump said.
