On Wednesday, the US deported 104 Indians who were living in the US illegally. All the Indian nationals traveling in a military aircraft landed at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in Amritsar. It was the first batch of deportations of Indian immigrants as ordered by President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
The deportation follows the recent discussion between the US and India to tackle illegal immigration. This issue has become a significant concern since Trump assumed office.
Earlier also, the US deported Indian nationals but this is the first time a military aircraft has carried out such an operation. For 40 hours, deportees were handcuffed, their feed tied with chains, and were not allowed to move from their seats, according to medical reports.
On Friday, the central government announced that the US authorities have identified another 487 illegal Indian migrants living in the US; they will be deported soon.
Basic Overview of Deportation and Reasons
Deportation is the process of removing foreign citizens from a nation for violating immigration law. Generally, the deportation process is taken care of by the host nation’s immigration administration, and the total cost is done by the host nation.
While there can be numerous reasons behind the deportation, including violations of visa status, criminal convictions, or a threat to public safety,. The most common reason is illegal entry: when a person enters a nation without proper documentation.
In several cases regarding the visa expiration and criminal convictions, people get some right to appeal in court. But when it comes to the illegal entry, nations mostly have a fast-tracked process to deporte and deportee Havana’s right to appeal.
The US has a guideline for deportation that includes provisions like humane treatment with deportees; vulnerable people are not being deported and deportation is not done in a nation where their lives are at risk.
Indian Deportation and the USA
As per the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department, around 2,71,000 people were deported in 2024, which was the highest since 2014. Since the return of President Trump, illegal immigrant deportation has become a significant topic of political debate.
Data says that there are around 11–13 million illegal migrants in the US. Deporting such large people will be a huge financial and logistical challenge for the nation.
Although the number of undocumented Indian immigrants in the US is very disputed. As per the new data from the Pew Research Center, a total of 725,000 people are illegal immigrants who are in India, making India the third-largest group after Mexico and El Salvador.
On the other hand, the Migration Policy Institute says the total number of Indian immigrants is 375,000, which puts India in a position.
According to an ICE document, accessed by Fox News, last year in November, a total of 1.44 million non-citizens in the US were on ICE’s non-detained docket with final orders of removal.
The ICE document says the US government expects foreign countries to accept their citizens; otherwise, they face resistance. As of now, ICE has classified 15 nations as uncooperative, including India, China, Russia, Venezuela, and Iran. While nations like Vietnam and Iraq are at risk of non-compliance.
As part of India-US migration, both nations are actively processing to deter illegal migration and try to create more averages for legal migration from India to the US.
