The family arrived at an ornately carved temple in western India with a special sweet of dried milk and clarified butter. It was a passionate sacrifice for their son’s safety: He had just landed in the United States, just days before President Trump took office promising a tough crackdown on illegal immigration.
In his hometown of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s homeland, signs of displacement are everywhere. Plaques on the buildings include donations of trumpets from American Indians. The houses remain locked and empty, their owners now in the United States – many legally, many not.
The threats of Mr. Trump’s deportation of a large number of illegal immigrants has raised a lot of noise in countries close to the United States, such as Mexico and Central America. But fear and uncertainty — and the possibility of political fallout — are also rife in India.
India is one of the top sources of illegal immigration to the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. As of 2022, more than 700,000 undocumented Indians lived in the United States, the center estimates, making them the third largest group, behind Mexicans and Hondurans.
Some Indians came legally and overstayed their visas. Others cross borders without permission: In 2023 alone, about 90,000 Indians were arrested as they tried to enter the United States illegally, according to US government data.
The Indian government, which has expanded defense, technical and trade ties with the United States, has expressed confidence that it is in a better position than most to face global figures with another “America First” director. Mr. Modi has a relationship with Mr. Trump, calling him “my dear friend” as he congratulated him on his second term in office.
Still, there are signs that India is trying to keep Mr.
Indian media reported last week that the government was working with the new administration to bring back 18,000 Indian immigrants who are under so-called final removal orders.
According to those reports, India’s intention is to protect its legal channels for immigration to the United States, such as visas for skilled workers, and to avoid punitive taxes on Mr. Helping his administration could spare India the public embarrassment of Mr.
Indian officials did not confirm the details of the news reports in the New York Times. But they noted that deportations from the United States to India were not new – more than 1,000 Indians were sent back last year – and said they were cooperating with the Trump administration.
“Our view is that we are against illegal immigration,” said Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry. “We have been negotiating with the US authorities to stop illegal immigration, with the aim of creating more routes from India to the US”
Those legal channels — namely H-1B visas for skilled workers and student visas — have been hotly debated among Mr. Trump’s supporters. Elon Musk and other tech experts say H-1B visas are needed to recruit the best talent to the United States. Many nationalist voices say jobs filled by visa holders should go to Americans.
The State Department said the Trump administration is working with India “to resolve issues related to irregular migration.” The new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, held his first bilateral meeting on Tuesday with India’s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar – an indication of the growing importance of US-India relations.
The intense focus on migration is politically sensitive in India.
Mr. Modi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, has positioned himself as a promoter of economic growth that he says will eventually make India a developed country. But his home state of Gujarat, once hailed as an economic miracle under his leadership, is one of India’s biggest sources of illegal immigration to the United States, according to police officials.
Although Washington views India as an alternative to China in global industrial dominance, its unequal economy – in some ways, the most unequal in the world – still pushes a large number of Indians to take huge risks to move to the United States. .
In the Mehsana district of Gujarat, almost every family has a member in the United States, legally or illegally. Some return on annual visits only to see their aunts and uncles. Mehsana is often in the headlines, with reports of its migrants dying trying to scale the US wall, reach its shores by boat or cross the frozen northern border in winter.
Immigration to the United States has always been a status symbol among Gujaratis. Families without members in the United States have trouble matching their children in marriages, said Jagdish, 55, who works at a local college in the village of Jasalpur whose son and daughter-in-law are in the United States illegally.
Jagdish, who asked that his last name not be used, said his son spent five months in Mexico waiting to cross the border five years ago. When he entered the United States, he was imprisoned for three months before being released. He now works in a restaurant there, and his wife joined him last year.
It cost the family more than $70,000 to get them to the United States — a mix of “hard-earned money, my life savings” and debts, Jagdish said.
“I don’t buy new clothes, I cut down on fruits and milk,” he said. “I need to pay the loan.”
Outside the village temple, a husband and wife who operate a Subway franchise in the United States, where they have lived for two decades, visited once a year. The husband, Rajanikant Patel, tried to give assurance about Mr. Trump, lying in the air of “no one knows” shows a lot of talk about the new administration.
“Trump is going to do what he has to do,” Mr Patel said. “But Trump needs people to work there. We are workers there. Such a big country. Who will work and manage there?”
Indians began immigrating to the United States in large numbers in the 1960s, when India was among the poorest countries in the world and America’s immigration policy was declining.
The pull is strong even today, as India is now the fifth largest in the world. Given its great inequality, economic growth does not necessarily mean better services or higher living standards for the majority.
“The quality of life here and here is incomparable,” said the wife of Mr. Patel, Nila Ben.
Immigration officials say they’ve seen a drop in visitors as it sounds like it’s getting harder to enter the United States, a tightening that began during the Biden administration and that Mr.
Varun Sharma, director of immigration, said about half of his potential clients inquired about illegal routes to the United States. He politely refused, he said.
Many undocumented immigrants now come from the new middle class. In some cases, Indians arriving on student visas have always passed their expiration date. In some 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 trader from a nearby village, said he hoped Mr. He said he hopes that his daughter who is studying engineering in the United States can continue after she finishes and invites her to come officially with her.
“My dream is that he never comes back,” he said.
Mujib Mashal contributed reporting from New Delhi.
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