The family arrived at an ornately carved temple in western India carrying special sweet powdered milk and clarified butter. It was a desperate offer for my son’s safety. My son had just moved to the United States, just days before President Trump took office promising a tough crackdown on illegal immigration.
Their village in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat is dotted with signs of migration. A plaque on the building trumpets donations from American Indians. The house is locked and empty and the owners are currently in the United States. In many cases it is legal, in many cases it is not.
President Trump’s threat to deport large numbers of illegal immigrants has caused the greatest alarm in countries closer to the United States, such as Mexico and Central America. But fear, uncertainty, and the potential for political repercussions are also sending ripples across India.
India is one of the largest sources of illegal immigration to the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. The center estimates that by 2022, more than 700,000 undocumented Indians will be living in the United States, making them the third largest group after Mexicans and Hondurans.
Some Indians arrive legally and overstay their visas. Some people cross the border without permission. According to U.S. government data, in 2023 alone, approximately 90,000 Indians were apprehended while attempting to enter the United States illegally.
The Indian government, which has expanded defense, technology and trade ties with the United States, has expressed confidence that it is best positioned to navigate the global reckoning under another “America First” administration. Prime Minister Modi congratulated President Trump on his second inauguration and connected with him, calling him “my dear friend.”
Nonetheless, there are signs that India is trying to keep President Trump on good side by cooperating with him in his crackdown on illegal immigration.
Indian media outlets reported last week that the government was working with the new administration to bring back 18,000 illegal immigrants from India who are facing so-called final deportation orders.
According to these reports, India’s goal is to protect legal pathways for immigration to the United States, such as skilled worker visas, and avoid punitive tariffs that President Trump has threatened to impose on illegal immigration. Helping his administration may also avoid the embarrassment of India being dragged into the public spotlight over President Trump’s crackdown.
Indian officials did not confirm the specifics of the news report in The New York Times. But they noted that deportations from the United States to India are not new, and said more than 1,000 Indians were repatriated last year and that they were cooperating with the Trump administration.
“Our position is against illegal migration,” said Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs. “We have been working with U.S. authorities to curb illegal immigration to create more avenues for legal immigration from India to the United States.”
These legal routes – 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 giants say they need H-1B visas to hire top talent in the United States. More nationalist voices say jobs filled by visa holders should go to Americans.
The U.S. State Department said the Trump administration was working with India “to address concerns related to illegal immigration.” New Secretary of State Marco Rubio held his first bilateral meeting with Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday. This signals the growing importance of the US-India relationship.
The intense focus on migration is politically sensitive in India.
Mr. Modi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, has positioned himself as the driving force behind the economic growth that will catapult India into a developed country. But his home state of Gujarat, once praised for its economic miracle under his leadership, is one of the biggest sources of illegal migration from India to the United States, according to police officials.
Washington looks to India as an alternative to China for global industrial dominance, but its uneven economy (by some measures one of the most unequal in the world) still forces many Indians to take enormous risks to enter the United States. .
In Gujarat’s Mehsana district, almost every family has a member living in the country, either legally or illegally. Some return only for annual visits to see their aunts and uncles. Mehsana frequently appears in the news during the winter with reports of the deaths of migrants trying to cross the border wall into the United States, reach the coast by boat or cross the frozen northern border.
Immigration to the United States has traditionally been a status symbol for Gujaratis. Families without family members in the United States are having trouble getting their children married, said Jagdish, 55, who works at a local college in Jasalpur village and whose son and daughter-in-law are in the country illegally.
Jagdish, who asked that his last name not be published, said his son waited five months in Mexico to cross the border five years ago. As soon as he entered the United States, he was imprisoned for three months and then released. He currently works in a cafe there and his wife joined him last year.
Jagdish said it cost the family more than $70,000 to get them to the United States. It’s a mix of “hard-earned money, my life savings” and loans, Jagdish said.
“I stopped buying new clothes and cut down on fruit and milk,” he said. “I have to pay back the loan.”
Outside the village temple was a place where a couple who had lived in the United States for 20 years and ran a Subway franchise visited once a year. Her husband, Rajanikanth Patel, has tried to provide some assurance about President Trump with the “no one knows” attitude that comes with talking much about the new administration.
“Trump will do what he has to do,” Patel said. “But Trump needs someone to work there. We are the workers there. It’s a really huge country. Who will work and manage it?”
Indians began migrating to the United States in large numbers in the 1960s, when India was one of the poorest countries in the world and U.S. immigration policies were relaxed.
The pull remains strong today as India is now the world’s fifth-largest economy. Given the enormous inequality, economic growth does not necessarily lead to better services or higher standards of living for most people.
“The quality of life here and there is incomparable,” said Nila Ben, Mr Patel’s wife.
Immigration consultants said the number of visitors has declined as rumors spread that entry into the U.S. is becoming increasingly difficult, austerity measures that began under the Biden administration and a sharp increase under President Trump.
Varun Sharma, director of an immigration consulting firm, said about half of his potential clients inquired about illegal routes to the United States. He said he politely declined.
Many undocumented immigrants now come from the new middle class. In some cases, Indians who arrive on student visas stay past their 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 vendor in a nearby village, said he hoped Trump would “show some generosity to separated families like mine.” Half the family is here and half is there. He said he hopes his daughter, who is studying engineering in the United States, can stay after graduation and that he can come legally too.
“My dream is that she never comes back,” he said.
Mujib Marshall Contributed reporting from New Delhi.
