India, a great source of illegal migration, hopes to navigate Trump storm

The family to the temple was elaborately carved in Western India brought a special dry milk and butter clarified. It was a desperate offer for their son’s safety: he had just entered the United States, just a few days before President Trump took office promising an intense persecution of illegal immigration.

In their village in Gujarat, the state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signs of migration everywhere. The array of buildings donates the trumpet from Indians in the US. The houses are locked and empty, their owners are now in the United States – many legal people, many people do not.

Mr. Trump’s threats about the expulsion of a series of illegal immigrants offered the largest alarms in countries near the United States, like in Mexico and Central America. But fear and uncertainty – and the potential of political consequences – are also rippling through India.

India is one of the leading illegal sources of immigration in the United States, According to the Pew Research Center. As of 2022, more than 700,000 Indians had no papers living in the United States, the center estimated, making them the third largest group, after Mexico and Hondurans.

Some Indians come legally and overdue their visas. Others cross the border without permission: Only in 2023, about 90,000 Indians were arrested when they tried to enter the United States illegally, according to data of the US government.

The Indian government, which has expanded its defense, technology and trade relations with the United States, expressed confidence that it is better positioned to overcome the global calculation with a government. First of America. Mr. Modi had a relationship with Mr. Trump, calling him my beloved friend when he congratulated him for the second time.

However, there are signs that India is trying to keep Mr. Trump in a good way by cooperating with illegal migration.

Indian news stores reported last week that the government worked with the new government to regain 18,000 illegal Indian immigrants, who were called the last order.

According to these reports, the goal of India is to protect its legal roads to immigrate into the United States, such as a skilled worker visa, and avoid the sanctions that Mr. Trump threatens to threaten. imposition of illegal migration. Help his government can also forgive India’s confusion when caught up in the publicity of Mr. Trump’s persecution.

Indian officials will not confirm the specific details of news reports for the New York Times. But they noted that the departure from the United States to India was not new – more than 1,000 Indians were sent back last year – and said they were working with the Trump administration.

Our position is that we against illegal migration, Mr. Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We have joined with the US government in illegally restraining immigration, with the view of creating many legal migration roads from India to the United States.

These legal routes-H-1B visa for skilled workers and visas for students-are a lively debate topic among Mr. Trump’s supporters. Elon Musk and other technology tycoons say that the H-1B visa is necessary to recruit the best talent for the United States. Many ethnic voices say that the work is filled by people with visas should go to Americans.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Trump administration was working with India to solve concerns related to uneven migration. The new Foreign Minister, Marco Rubio, held the first bilateral meeting on Tuesday with the Indian Foreign Minister, S. Jaishankar-a sign that showed the growing importance of the US-India relationship Degree.

The focus on migration is political sensitivity in India.

Mr. Modi, the country’s most powerful leader for decades, has become a driving force behind the economic growth he said in the end that he will eventually turn India into a developed country. But his own state, Gujarat, once praised as an economic miracle under his leadership, is One of the Indians Maximum source of illegal migration Coming to the United States, according to police officials.

Although Washington is coming to India as a replacement for China in the global industry dominance, its uneven economy – by some measures, one of the most uniform measures on. The world – still motivates a large number of Indians to take great risks to the United States.

In Gujarat’s Mussana district, almost every family has a member in the United States, legally or illegally. Some come back only for annual visitors to watch aunt and uncle. Mahhhaa often has news, with reports on dead migrants while trying to climb a border wall into the United States, to the coast by boat or cross the northern border freezing in the winter.

Migration to the United States traditionally is a symbol of status between Gujaratis. Families without members in the United States have difficulty combining their children in marriages, Jagdish, 55 years old, a worker at a local university in Jasalpur village with a son and daughter -in -law in Hoa Hoa. Illegal period.

Jagdish, who asked that his surname was not used, said his son spent years in Mexico waiting to cross the border of the previous five years. When he entered the United States, he was imprisoned three months before being released. Now he works at a cafe there, and his wife joined him last year.

Jagdish said that the cost for families of more than $ 70,000 to bring them to the United States-the blend of money to earn a lot of money, my savings and loans, Jagdish said.

I did not buy new clothes, I cut fruits and milk, he said. I need to pay the debt.

Outside the temple of the village, a husband and wife run a concession in the subway in the United States, where they have lived for two decades, during their one -year visit. The husband, Rajanikant Patel, tried to give some reassurance about Mr. Trump, waved in no one who knew the atmosphere typical of many conversations about the new government.

Mr. Trump will do what he has to do, Mr. Patel said. However, Trump needs everyone to work there. We are workers there. It was a large country. Who will work and manage there? “

The Indians began moving to the United States in large numbers in the 1960s, when India was among the poorest countries in the world and the US immigration policy was decreasing.

The strong pull even today, with India is now the fifth largest economy of the world. With its great inequality, economic growth does not necessarily turn into better services or higher living standards for most.

The quality of life here and cannot be compared, Mr. Patel’s wife, Nila Ben said.

Immigration experts say they have witnessed the decline of visitors when saying that entering the United States becomes more difficult, a tightening begins in the Biden and Mr. Trump administrations are moving. Sang increased sharply.

Varun Sharma, Director of Immigration Consulting, said about half of his potential customers asked about illegal roads into the United States. He politely refused them, he said.

Many immigrants have no papers now from the new middle class. In some cases, Indians come on the student visa to stay out of the expiry date. In other cases, migrants first fly to a third country on the visa of guests, then slowly travel to the United States or the sea.

Vishnu Bhai Patel, a lemon trader from a nearby village, said he hoped that Mr. Trump had shown some mercy for the divided families like mine – half of the family here and half there. He said he hoped that his daughter, who was studying techniques in the United States, could stay after graduation and then invited him to come legally.

My dream is that she never comes back, he said.

Mujib Mashal Contribute reports from New Delhi.