 "Migration")
A total of 96,917 Indian nationals were held while trying to enter the US illegally between October 2022 and September 2023, The Times of India (ToI) has reported, citing US Customs and Border Protection (UCBP) data.
This comes at a time when attempts to enter the US in recent years have resulted in tragic deaths, especially when such intrusions were attempted via dangerous routes. Of the 96,917 individuals held, 30,010 were caught at the Canada border, while another 41,770 were apprehended at the Mexico border. The rest were tracked down after they had entered US territory. The latest figure is five times the 19,883 Indians caught in 2019-20, the ToI report said.
Law enforcement agencies have said that these numbers represent the cases when the intruders were caught. In other words, the actual number of Indians that entered the US territory illegally could be much higher than this figure. A police officer in Gujarat told the newspaper, "This is just the tip of the iceberg. For every person caught at the border, there may be at least 10 others who successfully infiltrated the US."
The police officer added that these intruders primarily hail from Gujarat and Punjab and aspire to settle in America. The individuals arrested on the US borders are classified under four categories: Single adults, unaccompanied children, children accompanied by family members, and entire families. Single adults make up the largest category. This time, the number of single adults held at the US border stood at 84,000. Moreover, 730 unaccompanied children were also detained at the US border.
The tragic case of Brijkumar Yadav
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A resident of Gandhinagar, Brijkumar Yadav, attempted to cross into the US by scaling the Trump wall in December 2022, the ToI report said. While doing so, Yadav fell onto the Mexican side of Tijuana and died. He was holding his child in his hands. His wife, Pooja, fell onto the US side in San Diego. The parents left their three-year-old child behind. The child was later placed under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), The Times of India reported. There are likely several other similar cases of children without their parents.
The rise in the illegal flow of immigrants
The ToI report said that the illegal flow of immigrants is likely to have gone up after the end of a policy Title 42 in May, which was implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic. This policy allowed the US authorities to deport illegal immigrants without asylum hearings.
What are the governments doing to resolve the situation?
While Gujarat police, US, Indian, and Canadian agencies are trying to quell the flow of illegal immigration, their efforts have yielded little, The Times of India report said. This is even when families have been exposed to life-threatening risks in their pursuit of illegal entry into the US. A case in point is the Dingucga village tragedy and the Mehsana family's drowning in the St Lawrence River in April.
What happens to the Indians caught in the US?
The ToI report cited central agencies and the Gujarat police and reported that although many Indian nationals are caught in the US every year, very few face deportation as they are granted shelter in the US on humanitarian grounds.
