As President-elect Donald Trump is set to assume office next month, his administration is doubling up efforts to enforce stricter immigration policies. One of the major initiatives involves deporting undocumented immigrants, and a new report has found that nearly 18,000 Indians are among those facing deportation from the United States. The push for stricter border security has already begun, and the stakes for undocumented Indian immigrants are high.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has published statistics that there are about 1.45 million people in the U.S. who face deportation. Of these, 18,000 are Indian nationals, making India one of the top countries with a large number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. In particular, 17,940 Indians appear on ICE’s non-detained docket. These are individuals who have final orders of removal but are not currently in ICE custody, awaiting deportation while navigating a complex and often prolonged legal process.
Legal Process Complexity
Many of these undocumented immigrants have fallen into the long bureaucratic process of U.S. immigration law. Some have waited years for their cases to be heard, with some taking up to three years. Even though these people may have a case in the courts, they remain susceptible to deportation under the strengthened enforcement that will most certainly be undertaken by the Trump administration.
The ICE report further said that India is included in the list of 15 countries labeled “uncooperative” countries in deportation process. Generally, it refers to countries that did not fully cooperate in the deportation of their nationals. To make deportation easier and smoother, ICE has appealed to those countries to improve cooperation – to issue travel documents within a reasonable period of time and to allow scheduled flights carrying deported nationals.
Rising Numbers Of Undocumented Immigrants
This report further indicates an alarming increase in the number of Indian nationals trying to cross into the U.S. illegally. For the past three years, on average, 90,000 Indian nationals have been caught at the U.S. border attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally. Among the states are Punjab, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh that are the highest contributors of these figures as most of these immigrants hail from these regions.
Globally, the report points out that most of the immigrants in the U.S are undocumented immigrants from neighboring countries to its southern border. The top two are Honduras and Guatemala with 261,000 and 253,000 respectively. On Asian soil, China tops with 37,908, while India ranks 13th with 17,940 undocumented immigrants on the watch list for deportation.
The Trump administration intends to make deportation a critical function of its border security plan. These enforcement actions will strengthen in the coming months after the new president is to be sworn into office as it will further exert strain on immigrants from India to other countries. The efforts will likely lead to strengthened deportation actions because the administration is looking to diminish as many undocumented people who might be living in the nation.
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