JASALPUR, India — The family arrived at the ornately carved temple in western India, carrying a special dessert made of dried milk and clarified butter. It was a desperate offer for their son’s safety: he had just sneaked into the United States, mere days before President Donald Trump took office, threatening a harsh crackdown on illegal immigration.
Migration marks can be found across their hamlet in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state. Plaques on buildings highlight donations from Indians in America. Houses lay closed and empty, their owners now in the United States – some legally, some not.
Trump’s promises to deport millions of illegal immigrants have sparked the most outrage in countries closest to the United States, such as Mexico and Central America. However, anxiety and uncertainty — as well as the possibility of political ramifications — are spreading throughout India.
The Pew Research Center reports that India is one of the leading sources of illegal immigration to the United States. According to the organization, over 700,000 Indians without legal status lived in the United States in 2022, making them the third-largest group behind Mexicans and Salvadorans.
Some Indians arrive legitimately but overstay their visa. Others cross borders without authorization: According to U.S. official figures, approximately 90,000 Indians were apprehended in 2023 while attempting to enter the country illegally.
India’s government, which has strengthened defense, technology, and trade relations with the United States, believes it is better positioned than others to weather the global reckoning with another “America First” presidency. Modi has a close relationship with Trump, referring to him as “my dear friend” when congratulating him on his second term in office.
Nonetheless, there are signs that India is attempting to keep Trump on its side by assisting with his crackdown on illegal immigration.
This past week, Indian news sites claimed that the government was working with the incoming administration to repatriate 18,000 Indian immigrants who were subject to so-called final removal orders.
According to those sources, India’s goal is to maintain its legal immigration paths to the United States, such as skilled-worker visas, while avoiding the punitive tariffs that Trump has promised to impose on illegal migration. Helping his government might also save India from the shame of becoming embroiled in the media surrounding Trump’s crackdown.
Indian officials declined to corroborate the specifics of the news reports to The New York Times. However, they stated that deportations from the United States to India were not new — more than 1,000 Indians were returned last year — and that they were cooperating with the Trump administration.
“Our position is that we are against illegal migration,” said India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal. “We have been engaging with U.S. authorities on curbing illegal immigration, with the view of creating more avenues for legal migration from India to the U.S.”
These legal options, namely H-1B visas for skilled workers and student visas, have sparked passionate controversy among Trump supporters. Elon Musk and other tech moguls argue that H-1B visas are required to attract the top talent to the United States. More nationalists argue that the employment filled by those visa holders should go to Americans.
According to the State Department, the Trump administration is working with India to “address concerns related to irregular migration.” Marco Rubio, the new secretary of state, conducted his first bilateral meeting with India’s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, on Tuesday, indicating the growing importance of the US-India relationship.
The increased emphasis on migration is politically controversial in India.
Modi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, has positioned himself as the driving force behind economic growth, claiming that India will eventually become a developed nation. However, his native state of Gujarat, which was once lauded as an economic miracle under his leadership, is now one of India’s top sources of illegal migration to the United States, according to police officials.
Though Washington sees India as a viable alternative to China in terms of global industrial domination, its uneven economy — by some measurements, one of the most unequal in the world — continues to drive a great number of Indians to take enormous risks in order to reach the United States.
In Gujarat’s Mehsana area, practically every family has a member in the United States, either legally or illegally. Some people only return to see their aunts and uncles once a year. Mehsana is frequently in the news, with accounts of migrants dying while attempting to climb a border wall into the United States, reach its coastlines by boat, or cross the frozen northern border during the winter.
Migration to the United States has long been a prestige symbol for Gujaratis. Families with no members in the United States struggle to match their children in marriages, according to Jagdish, 55, a worker at the local college in Jasalpur whose son and daughter-in-law are illegal immigrants.
Jagdish, who requested that his last name not be used, stated that his son spent five months in Mexico waiting to cross the border five years ago. After entering the United States, he was imprisoned for three months before being freed. He now works at a cafe there with his wife, who joined him last year.
The family spent more than $70,000 to go to the United States, a combination of “hard-earned money, my life’s savings” and loans, according to Jagdish.
“I don’t buy new clothes, I have cut down on fruits and milk,” the man replied. “I need to repay the loans.”
A husband and wife who have lived in the United States for two decades and own a Subway franchise were on their once-a-year visit to the local temple. Rajanikant Patel, the spouse, attempted to offer some reassurance about Trump while maintaining the “no one knows” tone that typifies much discussion of the new government.
“Trump will do whatever he has to do,” Patel stated. “But Trump requires employees to work there. We are laborers there. It is such a large country. “Who will be working and managing there?”
Indians began migrating to the United States in huge numbers in the 1960s, when India was one of the world’s poorest countries and U.S. immigration policy was relaxed.
Even now, with India ranking as the world’s fifth-largest economy, the attraction remains strong. Given its vast inequality, economic progress has not always resulted in improved services or higher living standards for the majority of people.
“The quality of life here and there cannot be compared,” Patel’s wife, Nila Ben, explained.
Immigration experts said they had noticed a drop in visits as word spread that it was becoming more difficult to enter the United States, a tightening that began during the Biden administration and that Trump intends to significantly accelerate.
Varun Sharma, the director of an immigration consultancy, stated that almost half of his prospective clients enquired about illegal entry into the United States. He respectfully declines them, he said.
Many undocumented immigrants in the United States today are from the new middle class. In some circumstances, Indian students overstay their visas. In other circumstances, migrants fly to a third nation on a visiting visa before gradually making their way to the United States by land or sea.
Vishnu Bhai Patel, a lemon dealer from a nearby village, expressed hope that Trump “shows some leniency for divided families like mine—half of the family is here and half there.” He expressed optimism that his daughter, who is studying engineering in the United States, could stay after graduation and then invite him to come legally as well.
“My dream is for her to never come back,” he said.