US President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office within a month and immigration policies are being strictly enforced.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released a list of 1.45 million people it says will be deported, including about 18,000 undocumented Indians.
For many undocumented Indians, the process of legalizing their status is fraught with bureaucratic challenges, with waiting periods stretching to two or three years.
However, India is not the country with the largest number of undocumented migrants. Countries bordering the United States, such as Honduras and Guatemala, top the list with 261,000 and 253,000 unaccounted for, 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 policy, India is classified as an “uncooperative” country in the deportation process. Other nations on this list include Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Venezuela. This lack of cooperation may pose additional challenges to diplomatic relations.
The ICE document noted difficulties in “conducting interviews, issuing timely travel documents, and accepting the physical return of its nationals by commercial or charter flights scheduled in accordance with ICE and/or foreign government removal guidelines.”
Thousands of undocumented Indians with final deportation orders will be sent back to India, after Trump vowed to launch the largest deportation effort in US history.
In the past three years, nearly 90,000 Indians were caught trying to enter the United States illegally, with many coming from states like Punjab, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, according to reports.
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Time magazine after being named 2024 “Person of the Year,” US President-elect Donald Trump said he would make it “very difficult” for countries that refuse to take back immigrants. He added that such countries would face “substantial taxes”.
“I’m going to take them to every country, or we won’t do business with those countries,” Trump said.
“I want them out, and the countries have to take them back. If they don’t take them back, we won’t do business with those countries, and we will impose substantial tariffs on them,” he added.
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