India, a large source of illegal immigration, hopes to navigate the Trump storm

The family arrived at the ornately carved temple in western India carrying a special treat of powdered milk and clarified butter. It was a desperate bid for their son’s safety: He had just crossed into the United States, just days before President Trump took office promising a fierce crackdown on illegal immigration.

In their village in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, signs of migration are everywhere. Plaques on buildings bugle donations from Indians in America. The houses are locked and empty, their owners now in the United States – many legally, not many.

Mr. Trump’s threats to mass deport illegal immigrants have raised the loudest alarms in countries close to the United States, such as in Mexico and Central America. But fear and uncertainty — and the potential for political repercussions — also extend across India.

India is one of the most important sources of illegal immigration to the United States, According to the Pew Research Center. As of 2022, more than 700,000 undocumented Indians were living in the United States, the center estimates, making them the third largest group, behind Mexicans and Indians.

Some Indians arrive legally and overstay their visas. Others cross the border without permission: In 2023 alone, about 90,000 Indians were arrested trying to enter the United States illegally, according to US government data.

The Indian government, which has expanded defense, technology and trade ties with the United States, has expressed confidence that it is better than most to weather a global reckoning with an “America First” administration. Mr. Modi has a bond with Mr. Trump, calling him “my dear friend” as he congratulated him on assuming office for a second time.

However, there are signs that India is trying to keep Mr. Trump on its good side by cooperating with the commission of illegal immigration.

Indian news outlets reported last week that the government was working with the new administration to take back 18,000 illegal Indian immigrants who are subject to so-called final removal orders.

According to those reports, India’s goal is to protect its legal pathways to immigration to the United States, such as skilled worker visas, and avoid the punitive tariffs that Mr. Trump has threatened to impose on illegal immigration. His administration could also help save India the embarrassment of propaganda for Mr. Trump’s crackdown.

Indian officials would not confirm details of the news reports to 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 last year — and said they were working with the Trump administration.

“Our position is that we are against illegal immigration,” said Ranhir Jaiswal, spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry. “We have engaged with US authorities on curbing illegal immigration, with the aim of creating more avenues for legal migration from India to the US.”

These legal routes — namely H-1B visas for skilled workers and visas for students — have been the subject of heated debate among Mr. Trump’s supporters. Elon Musk and other tech moguls say H-1B visas are necessary to recruit top talent to the United States. More nationalist voices say jobs filled by visa holders should go to Americans.

The State Department said the Trump administration is working with India to “address concerns regarding irregular migration.” The new Foreign Secretary, Marco Rubio, held his first bilateral meeting on Tuesday with Indian Foreign Minister, S.

The intense focus on immigration is politically sensitive in India.

Mr. Modi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, has cast himself as a driving force behind economic growth that he says will eventually make India a developed nation. But his home state, Gujarat, once an economic miracle under his leadership, is One from India The largest sources Illegal immigration To the United States, according to police officials.

Although Washington eyes India as an alternative to China in global industrial dominance, its unequal economy — by some measures, one of the most unequal in the world — still pushes large numbers of Indians to take enormous risks to reach the United States.

In the Mehsana district of Gujarat, almost every family has a member in us, legally or illegally. Some return only for annual visits to see aunts and uncles. Often in the news, with reports of migrants dying while trying to scale a border wall into the United States, reaching its shores by boat or making their way over the frozen northern border during the winter.

Migration to the United States has traditionally been a status symbol among Gujaratis. Jagdish, 55, a local college worker in Jasalpur village whose son and daughter are in the United States illegally, said families without members in the United States have trouble matching their children in marriages.

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. Upon entering the United States, he was imprisoned for three months before being released. He now works at a café there, and was joined by his wife last year.

Jagdish said it cost the family more than $70,000 to get them into the United States — a combination of “hard-earned money, my life savings” and loans.

“I don’t buy new clothes, I’ve cut out fruits and milk,” he said. “I need to pay off the loans.”

Outside the village temple, a husband and wife who ran a Subway franchise in the United States, where they lived for two decades, visited once a year. The husband, Rajanikanth Patel, tried to offer some reassurance about Mr. Trump, in the “nobody knows” air that characterizes much of the talk about the new administration.

“Trump will do what he has to do,” Mr. Patel said. But Trump needs people to work there. We are the workers there. It’s a huge country. Who will work and manage there? “

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

The draw is strong even today, with India now the world’s fifth largest economy. Given massive inequality, economic growth has not necessarily translated into better services or higher standards of living for most.

“The quality of life is here and it can’t be compared,” said Mr. Patel’s wife, Neela Penn.

Immigration consultants said they saw a decline in visitors as word spread that it was becoming more difficult to enter the United States, a tightening that began during the Biden administration and that Mr. Trump is moving into a surge.

Varun Sharma, director of an immigration consultancy, said about half of his potential clients have inquired about illegal routes into the United States. He said he politely declined them.

Many undocumented immigrants now come from the new middle class. In some cases, Indians on student visas still go beyond the expiry date. In other cases, immigrants first fly to a third country on a visitor’s visa, 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. Trump would show “some leniency to split families like mine — half the family here and half here.” He said he hopes his daughter, who is studying engineering in the United States, can graduate and then invite him to attend legally as well.

“My dream is for you to never come back,” he said.

He answered, Mashal Contributed reporting from New Delhi.