NEW DELHI: Data from US Border and Customs Patrol (USBP) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), both under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), shows that more than 92 lakh people tried to enter the US illegally in the 23-month time period between December 2022 and October 2024. The data includes those who were arrested, expelled and denied entry at various border points.
ICE, which is responsible for immigration enforcement inside the US and for investigating immigration violations, made a total of 3,488 arrests of Indian nationals from 2021 to 2024. The highest number of arrests was recorded in April 2023, when 225 Indian nationals were arrested. The arrests were as follows: 190 arrests from October 2020 to July 2021; 1,029 arrests in 2022; 1,483 arrests in 2023; and 786 arrests by September 2024.Apart from Indian nationals, those who were arrested by ICE in the same period were: 1,091 Chinese nationals; 9,436 Brazilians; 143,986 from Mexico; and 25,348 from Ecuador.
In total, the ICE made 500,853 arrests from 2021 to 2024. On the other hand, USBP, which is responsible for securing the US borders and preventing illegal entry, was involved in 2,439 nationwide encounters with 269,884 Indian nationals, which is less than 3% of the total over 92 lakh who tried or were able to enter US borders illegally.
Additionally, many of the individuals faced inadmissible actions, meaning they were stopped before entering the US. This could include being denied entry at an airport or land border, as well as being detained for immigration violations before crossing the US border. Out of the 269,884 Indian nationals, who faced action from the USBP, 2,206 were expelled (removed after crossing the US border illegally), and 106,352 were apprehended (detained or arrested at the border) with the rest not being admitted.
The data also shows figures for other countries. Chinese nationals were involved in 171,637 encounters, with 2,072 expulsions and 67,058 apprehensions. Canadian nationals accounted for 146,936 encounters, with 4,099 expulsions and 524 apprehensions. In all, the data from USBP reveals that more than 92 lakh (9,261,828) people attempted to enter the US illegally between December 2022 and October 2024. Of this, 1,683,050 faced expulsion and 4,384,678 were subjected to apprehensions. The encounters, as per the data, are categorized as follows: Inadmissible (individuals denied entry into the US at airports or land borders); Expulsions (individuals removed after crossing the border illegally, without standard legal processing); and Apprehensions (individuals detained or arrested for immigration violations).These illegal immigrants were prosecuted under Title 8 of the US Code (governing immigration laws) and Title 42 (used during the Covid-19 pandemic to expel individuals quickly for public health reasons) was used to process many of these encounters.