As many as 18,000 Indians are on the verge of being deported from the US, know the whole story
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump will take over the White House as the new President of the United States.
During the campaign, Trump had repeatedly said that if he becomes president, he will tighten the US immigration policies, that is, the rules for people coming to the US from other countries. And now as many as 18,000 Indians are on the verge of being deported from the US.
Why is this action being taken? How is the immigration policy expected to change after Donald Trump becomes the President of the United States? Let's understand.
Trump's stance on immigrants
The issue of people coming from other countries and settling in the US for various reasons became a hot topic in the current US presidential election.
We will take a tough stance on this, Donald Trump has already announced that we will implement the largest mass deportation program ever, that is, a campaign to send people back to their countries from the US.
Trump has said that he is ready to use the army and spend a lot for this.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced a list of 1.45 million such people.
They will be deported, that is, sent back to their country of origin from the US. And as many as 18,000 of them are Indians.
Who is an undocumented immigrant?
An undocumented immigrant is a person who has entered the US without official formalities, who has remained in the US even after the visa has expired, or who has been protected from deportation from the US for some reason.
Different visas are required for different things in the US.
For education - F1 visa
For research, for work - H1B visa (a temporary work permit)
For spouses or children of those living there - H4 visa
If those who went as students get a job there, they have to apply for an H1B visa. And after getting an H1B visa, employees can apply for a green card after completing some other conditions and procedures.
It used to take five to seven years to get a green card, but now that period has increased significantly. There are some reasons behind this.
But many people face obstacles in getting a visa to the United States, and that is why the number of people crossing the US border into that country is high.
According to ICE's November 2024 data, the largest number of illegal immigrants came from the neighboring countries of the United States, Honduras and Guatemala.
Illegal places in the United States
Honduras 261,000
Guatemala 253,000
China 37,908
India 17,940
Has the US deported immigrants before?
Deporting immigrants by American agencies is not new.
More than 1.5 million people were deported from the country during the term of President Joe Biden. In addition, another 1 million were sent back from the border during the global Covid-19 pandemic.
During Barack Obama's 8-year presidency, he was often called the "deporter-in-chief" because 3 million people were deported during his time.
But the Trump administration is poised to take a more comprehensive and aggressive action. That is, in addition to border operations, the possibility of using the National Guard and military aircraft to detain or send people back to other parts of the United States is being expressed.
Trump's Vice President-elect J. D. Vance had said that the Trump administration's campaign will 'start' with 1 million people.
Increase in the number of Indians entering the US illegally
The US observes the fiscal year from October to September. More than 1,000 Indians were deported from the United States by charter or commercial aircraft during the fiscal year ending September 2024, said Bernstein Murray, Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security.
"The number of Indians who are stopped by US authorities while trying to enter the United States through the Mexican or Canadian borders has increased in recent years.
In addition, the number of people who are being deported from the United States to India has also increased steadily in recent years," Murray said in a media briefing in October 2024.
About 1,70,000 Indian refugees who tried to enter through the northern and southern land borders of the United States have been detained by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) since October 2020.
According to Pew Research Center data, there were an estimated 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the United States by 2022.
Pew Research data also shows that as many as 3% of the total US population and 22% of the foreign-born population are unauthorized immigrants.
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