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The United States has, over the past year, repatriated 1,100 Indians who tried to enter the country illegally, said a senior official from the US Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday, reported the Hindustan Times.
Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy Royce Murray noted a “steady increase” in the repatriation of Indians from the United States.
“In fiscal year 2024…the United States repatriated over 1,100 Indian nationals,” Murray during a press briefing. “That has been part of a steady increase in removals from the United States of Indian nationals over the past few years.”
The remarks came days after around 100 illegal migrants were sent back to India on a chartered flight from the United States on October 22. These are separate from the 1,100 persons repatriated in the last United States fiscal year, which ended in September.
Murray said the flight was part of the Department of Homeland Security’s initiative to enforce immigration laws and deter “irregular migration” to the United States. She said there would be “tough consequences” for unlawful entry attempts.
She also revealed that the October 22 flight had landed in Punjab, but did not specify which Indian states were contributing the highest number of undocumented immigrants from India.
Murray noted that Indian nationals were increasingly choosing the United States-Mexico and United States-Canada borders to enter the country.
Murray clarified that the deportations were unrelated to a recent controversy involving allegations that an Indian government official hired a hitman to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader in New York.
She called the Government of India an “important partner” in tackling the problem of undocumented immigration.
“We have been very pleased with the cooperation we are receiving from the government of India and look forward to that relationship growing even stronger,” the Hindustan Times quoted Murray as saying.
Indians constituted 90,415 out of about 29 lakh undocumented immigrants who were caught trying to enter the United States from between October 2023 and September this year, according to data compiled by the US Customs and Border Protection agency.
This marked a decrease from the 96,917 Indians who entered or attempted to enter the country without documents in the preceding year.
In all, 29,01,142 persons from various countries, including Mexico, China and Colombia, entered the United States illegally in 2024, as compared to 32,01,144 persons in the preceding year.
Between October 2023 and September, 25,616 Indians entered the United States illegally through the country’s southwest land border with Mexico, while 43,764 entered through its northern border with Canada.
Of the total Indians who entered this year, 78,312 were single adults and 11,531 were categorised as individuals in a family. Over 500 were unaccompanied children or minors.
Nearly all Indians illegally entering the United States turn themselves in to the Border Patrol agency to avoid getting arrested. This is so that they can apply for asylum in the United States, according to The Wall Street Journal.