India’s government is prepared to work with Donald Trump’s administration to identify and take back all its citizens residing illegally in the US, an early signal from New Delhi that it’s willing to comply with the incoming American president and avoid a
trade war
.
The two countries have together identified some 18,000
illegal Indian migrants
in the US to be sent back home, according to people familiar with the matter. The figure could be much higher than that, though, given it’s unclear how many illegal Indian migrants live in the US, the people added, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.
Like several other nations, India is working behind the scenes to appease the
Trump administration
and avoid the brunt of its trade threats. The crackdown on illegal migration has been a signature campaign pledge for Trump. Within hours of his inauguration Monday, the new president moved to fulfill that pledge as he pushed to end birthright citizenship and mobilize troops on the US-Mexico border.
In return for its cooperation, India hopes that the Trump administration would protect legal immigration channels used by its citizens to enter the US, in particular the student visas and the H-1B program for skilled workers. Indian citizens accounted for almost three-fourths of the 386,000 H-1B visas granted in 2023, according to official data.
Any slack in taking back illegal US migrants could also adversely affect India’s labor and mobility agreements with other countries, the people familiar with the matter said. With a jobs shortage back home, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has signed migration agreements with an array of countries in recent years, including Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel and others.
“As part of India-US cooperation on migration and mobility, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration. This is being done to create more avenues for legal migration from India to the US,” said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs. “The latest deportation of Indian nationals from the US by a chartered flight is a result of this cooperation,” he added, referring to an October repatriation action.
Rising numbers
India is a relatively modest contributor of illegal migrants to the US, with its citizens accounting for about 3% of all unlawful crossings encountered by US border patrol officials in fiscal 2024, according to US Customs and Border Protection data. Latin American countries such as
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