India, a big source of illegal migration, hopes to navigate the Trump storm

Jasalpur: The family arrived at the ornately carved temple in western India bearing a special sweet of dried milk and clarified butter. It was a desperate offering for their son's safety: He had just crossed into the United States, only days before President Donald Trump took office promising a fierce crackdown on illegal immigration.

In their village in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the markers of migration are everywhere. Plaques on buildings trumpet donations from Indians in America. Houses sit locked and empty, their owners now in the United States -- many legally, many not.

Trump's threats of mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally have raised the loudest alarms closer to the United States, like in Mexico and Central America. But the fear and uncertainty -- and the potential for political repercussions -- are also rippling through India.

India is one of the top sources of illegal immigration to the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. As of 2022, more than 700,000 Indians without legal status were living in the United States, the center estimates, making them the third-largest group, behind Mexicans and Salvadorans.

Some Indians arrive legally and overstay their visas. Others cross the borders without authorization: In 2023 alone, about 90,000 Indians were arrested as they tried to enter the United States illegally, according to U.S. government data.

India's government, which has expanded defense, technology and trade ties with the United States, has expressed confidence that it is better positioned than most to weather the global reckoning with another "America First" administration. Modi has a bond with Trump, calling him "my dear friend" as he congratulated him on taking office for a second time.

Nevertheless, there are signs that India is trying to keep Trump on its good side by cooperating with his clampdown on illegal migration.

Indian news outlets reported this past week that the government had been working with the new administration to take back 18,000 Indian immigrants who are under so-called final removal orders.

According to those reports, India's goal is to protect its legal pathways for immigration to the United States, like skilled-worker visas, and avoid the punitive tariffs Trump has threatened to impose over illegal migration. Helping his administration could also spare India the embarrassment of being caught up in the publicity of Trump's crackdown.

Indian officials would not confirm the specifics 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 back last year -- and said that they were working with the Trump administration.

"Our position is that we are against illegal migration," said Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for India's Foreign Ministry. "We have been engaging with U.S. authorities on curbing illegal immigration, with the view of creating more avenues for legal migration from India to the U.S."

Those legal routes -- namely, H-1B visas for skilled workers and visas for students -- have been a subject of heated debate among Trump's supporters. Elon Musk and other tech moguls say the H-1B visas are needed to recruit the best talent to the United States. More nationalist voices say the jobs filled by those visa holders should go to Americans.

The State Department said the Trump administration was working with India to "address concerns related to irregular migration." The new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, held his first bilateral meeting Tuesday with India's foreign minister, S. Jaishankar -- an indication of the growing importance of the U.S.-India relationship.

The intensified focus on migration is politically sensitive in India.

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 own home state, Gujarat, once hailed as an economic miracle under his leadership, is one of India's largest sources of illegal migration to the United States, according to police officials.

Though Washington is looking to India as an alternative to China in global industrial dominance, its uneven economy -- by some measures, one of the most unequal in the world -- still impels large numbers of Indians to take enormous risks to make it to the United States.

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

Migration to the United States has traditionally been a status symbol among Gujaratis. Families who have no members in the United States have trouble matching their children in marriages, said Jagdish, 55, a worker at the local college in the village of Jasalpur whose son and daughter-in-law are in the United States illegally.

Jagdish, who asked that his last name not be used, said his son had spent five months in Mexico waiting to cross the border five years ago. Upon entering the United States, he was jailed for three months before being released. He now works at a cafe there, and his wife joined him last year.

It cost the family more than $70,000 to get them to the United States -- a mix of "hard-earned money, my life's savings" and loans, Jagdish said.

"I don't buy new clothes, I have cut down on fruits and milk," he said. "I need to repay the loans."

Outside the village temple, a husband and wife who run a Subway franchise in the United States, where they have lived for two decades, were on their once-a-year visit. The husband, Rajanikant Patel, tried to offer some reassurance about Trump, couched in the "no one knows" air that characterizes much talk about the new administration.

"Trump will do what he has to do," Patel said. "But Trump needs people to work there. We are laborers there. It's such 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 world's poorest nations and U.S. immigration policy was easing.

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

"The quality of life here and there cannot be compared," said Patel's wife, Nila Ben.

Immigration consultants said they had seen a decline in visitors as word spread that it was becoming harder to enter the United States, a tightening that began during the Biden administration and that Trump is moving to drastically increase.

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

Many immigrants in the U.S. without legal permission now come from the new middle class. In some cases, Indians who arrive on student visas stay past the expiration date. In other cases, migrants 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 that Trump "shows some leniency for divided families like mine -- half of the family is here and half there." He said he hoped that his daughter, who is studying engineering in the United States, could stay on after graduating and then invite him to come legally, too.

"My dream is for her to never come back," he said.