New Delhi(Surbhi Gloria Singh)A US deportation flight carrying about 100 Indian nationals accused of entering the country illegally landed in Punjab’s Amritsar on Wednesday. They will now be boarded onto buses to their home states, including Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.President Donald Trump has made the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals a key policy.
But what options do undocumented Indians in the US have?
“There are not many legal pathways for those on illegal status, especially the ones with criminal records. Even those without criminal records who try to file in any permitted category must leave the country once to get new status validated, and the probability of being denied re-entry is still very high,” Ajay Sharma, an immigration consultant and the founder of Abhinav Immigration Services told Business Standard.”Interestingly, the scope of entry and residency in other key destinations also gets restricted under the circumstances,” he said.Jonathan Grode, a US practice director and managing partner for Green and Spiegel, an immigration law firm in Philadelphia, in response to Business Standard’s query said, “Options really depend on the person’s individual status and if they have family or other means of staying in the US, such as asylum. Generally speaking, employment sponsorship is not an option.”
“If you are a visa overstay, marriage to a US citizen can quell the issue – but no other filing really can. So even if you had an employer, it does not mean you can get status. The only other real avenue is asylum – but that is predicated on a specific fear of harm if you return to your home country,” Grode said.Seeking asylum in the United States is the process of requesting protection from persecution in the US Asylum seekers are people who have fled their home countries due to a well-founded fear of persecution.
What message do Trump’s deportation policies send?
“Well, the message is that the US will not tolerate those entering the US without status. However, until we, as a country, create a visa classification for low-skilled workers, there will always be those in the US without status,” Grode said.Sharma added to this saying, “Indians must either apply through legitimate routes or stay in your own country.”The US is said to have identified about 18,000 Indian nationals it believes entered illegally. However, the number of undocumented Indian immigrants in the US is disputed.Data from Pew Research Center estimates 725,000 people as of 2022, making Indians the third-largest group after Mexico and El Salvador.In contrast, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) puts the figure at 375,000, ranking India fifth among origin countries. Unauthorised immigrants make up 3% of the US population and 22% of the foreign-born population.
India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said recently that India was “firmly opposed to illegal migration, especially as it is linked to other forms of organised crime.””As part of India-US migration and mobility cooperation, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration while also creating more avenues for legal migration from India to the US. We are keen to continue this cooperation.”ICE currently classifies 15 countries as “uncooperative”, including China, India, Iran, Russia and Venezuela. Eleven others, such as Iraq, Nicaragua and Vietnam, are considered at risk of non-compliance.
“Factors that could lead to a country being classified as uncooperative include hindering ICE’s removal efforts by refusing to conduct consular interviews when necessary; refusing to accept charter removal missions; having an unacceptable ratio of releases when compared to removals and/or unacceptable average time from executable final order of removal to removal; and/or denying or delaying issuance of travel documents, such as passports,” the document says