Opposed to illegal immigration: India amid Trump's push for deportation of undocumented immigrants

New Delhi: India on Friday said it is opposed to illegal immigration and would be ready to take back Indians staying illegally in the US provided their nationality is verified.

The comments by External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal came as the Trump administration is preparing to implement a mass deportation programme targeting illegal immigrants living in the US.

Jaiswal said at a media briefing that New Delhi would take back Indians who have either overstayed in the US or any other country or are without papers.

He was responding to a question about reports that the US Department of Homeland Security has identified around 18,000 illegal immigrants from India.

India is opposed to illegal immigration because of its links to several forms of organised crime, Jaiswal said.

"We will take them back provided documents are shared with us so that we can verify their nationality, that they are indeed Indians," he said.

At the same time, he said, it would be "premature" to talk about the number of illegal Indian immigrants staying in the US.

In his campaign speeches for the presidential election, Donald Trump promised a radical shift to tighten Washington's immigration policy and vowed to carry out the "largest" domestic deportation operation of undocumented immigrants in American history and review the existing refugee programmes.

After taking oath as the 47th US President this week, Trump directed American agencies to prepare to "immediately repel, repatriate, and remove" undocumented immigrants as part of his policy on the matter.