The family arrived at the ornately carved temple in western India with a special sweet of powdered milk and clarified butter. It was a desperate bid for her son’s safety: he had just crossed into the United States, just days before President Trump took office promising a fierce crackdown on illegal immigration.
In his village in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, markers of migration are everywhere. Plaques on the buildings announce donations from Indians in America. The houses remain closed and empty, their owners now in the United States (many legally, many not).
Trump’s threats to massively deport illegal immigrants have raised the loudest alarm bells in countries closer to the United States, such as Mexico and Central America. But fear and uncertainty – and the potential for political repercussions – are also spreading across India.
India is one of the main sources of illegal immigration to the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. In 2022, more than 700,000 undocumented Indians lived in the United States, the center estimates, making them the third largest group, behind Mexicans and Salvadorans.
Some Indians arrive legally and overstay their visas. Others cross borders without authorization: in 2023 alone, some 90,000 Indians were arrested trying to enter the United States illegally, according to US government data.
India’s government, which has expanded its defense, technology and trade ties with the United States, has expressed confidence that it is better positioned than most to weather the global reckoning with another “America First” administration. ”. Modi has a bond with Trump, calling him “my dear friend” while congratulating him on assuming office for the second time.
However, there are signs that India is trying to keep Trump on his good side by cooperating with his crackdown on illegal migration.
Indian media reported last week that the government had been working with the new administration to welcome back 18,000 illegal Indian immigrants who are under so-called final removal orders.
According to those reports, India’s goal is to protect its legal avenues for immigration to the United States, such as visas for skilled workers, and avoid the punitive tariffs that Trump has threatened to impose on illegal migration. Helping his administration could also save India the embarrassment of being caught up in the publicity of Trump’s crackdown.
Indian officials did not confirm the details of the news reports to the New York Times. But they noted that U.S. deportations to India were not new — more than 1,000 Indians were returned last year — and said they were working with the Trump administration.
“Our position is that we are against illegal migration,” said Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry. “We have been collaborating with US authorities to curb illegal immigration, in order to create more avenues for legal migration from India to the United States”
Those legal avenues (i.e., H-1B visas for skilled workers and visas for students) have been the subject of heated debate among Trump supporters. Elon Musk and other tech moguls say H-1B visas are necessary to recruit top talent to the United States. More nationalistic voices say the jobs held by visa holders should go to Americans.
The State Department said the Trump administration was working with India to “address concerns related to irregular migration.” New Secretary of State Marco Rubio held his first bilateral meeting Tuesday with Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, an indication of the growing importance of the U.S.-India relationship.
The heightened focus on migration is politically sensitive in India.
Modi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, has presented himself as a driving force behind economic growth that he believes will eventually turn India into a developed nation. But his own home state, Gujarat, once hailed as an economic miracle under his leadership, is one of India’s greatest sources of illegal migration to the United States, according to police officials.
Although Washington views India as an alternative to China in the global industrial dominance, its unequal economy (by some measures, one of the most unequal in the world) still drives large numbers of Indians to take enormous risks to reach the United States. . .
In the Mehsana district of Gujarat, almost every family has a member in the United States, legally or illegally. Some return only for annual visits to see their aunts and uncles. Mehsana frequently appears in the news, with reports that its migrants die while trying to scale a border wall into the United States, reach its shores by boat or cross the icy northern border during the winter.
Migration to the United States has traditionally been a status symbol among Gujaratis. Families without members in the United States have trouble marrying off their children, said Jagdish, 55, a local university worker in the village of Jasalpur, whose son and daughter-in-law are in the United States illegally.
Jagdish, who asked that his last name not be used, said his son had spent five months in Mexico waiting to cross the border five years ago. Upon entering the United States, he was imprisoned for three months before being released. He now works in a cafe there and his wife joined him last year.
It cost the family more than $70,000 to get them to the United States — a mix of “hard-earned money, my life savings” and loans, Jagdish said.
“I don’t buy new clothes, I have reduced my consumption of fruits and milk,” he said. “I need to pay off the loans.”
Outside the village temple, a husband and wife who run a Subway franchise in the United States, where they have lived for two decades, were making their annual visit. The husband, Rajanikant Patel, attempted to offer some reassurance about Trump, couched in the “nobody knows” tone that characterizes many conversations about the new administration.
“Trump will do what he has to do,” Patel said. “But Trump needs people to work there. We are workers there. It is such a big country. Who will work and manage there?
Indians began moving to the United States in large numbers in the 1960s, when India was among the world’s poorest nations and American immigration policy was being relaxed.
The pull is strong even today, as India is now the world’s fifth largest economy. Given its immense inequality, economic growth has not necessarily translated into better services or higher standards of living for the majority.
“The quality of life here and there cannot be compared,” said Mr. Patel’s wife, Nila Ben.
Immigration consultants said they had seen a decline in visitors as word spread that it was becoming harder to enter the United States, a restriction that began during the Biden administration and that Trump is seeking to sharply increase.
Varun Sharma, director of an immigration consultancy, said about half of his potential clients asked about illegal routes into the United States. He politely declines them, he said.
Many undocumented immigrants now come from the new middle class. In some cases, Indians arriving on student visas stay beyond the expiration date. In other cases, immigrants first fly to a third country on a visitor visa and then slowly make their way to the United States by land or sea.
Vishnu Bhai Patel, a lemon merchant from a nearby village, said he hoped Trump would “show some leniency to divided families like mine: half the family is here and the other half is there.” He said he hoped his daughter, who is studying engineering in the United States, could stay after she graduated and then invite him to come legally as well.
“My dream is that she never comes back,” he said.
Mujib Mashal contributed reporting from New Delhi.
