Nine surprising facts about Indians in the United States

Donald Trump has made the mass deportation of undocumented foreigners a key policy, and it is said that the United States identified some 18,000 Indian nationals who believes he entered illegally.

Last week, Narendra Modi said that India would recover her nationals who were in the United States illegally, and also take energetic measures against the “people’s trafficking ecosystem.”

“These are children of very common families, and are attracted to great dreams and promises,” he said during his visit to Washington.

Now a new one paper By Abby Budiman and DeVesh Kapur of Johns Hopkins University has shed light on numbers, demography, entry methods, locations and trends related to undocumented Indians over time.

These are some of the most striking findings.

Unauthorized immigrants represent 3% of the American population and 22% of the population born abroad.

However, the number of undocumented Indians between them is disputed, with estimates that vary widely due to different calculation methods.

PEW Research Center and New York Migration Studies Center (CMS) estimate about 700,000 people from 2022, making them the third largest group after Mexico and El Salvador.

In contrast, the Institute of Migration Policy (MPI) places the figure in 375,000, classifying India in fifth place among countries of origin.

The official data of the Government of the National Security Department (DHS) offer another image, informing 220,000 Indians not authorized in 2022.

The big differences in estimates highlight the uncertainty surrounding the true size of the undocumented Indian population, according to the study.

Indian migrants represent only a small part of the general unauthorized migrant population in the United States.

If PEW and CMS estimates are precise, almost one in four Indian immigrants in the United States is undocumented, an unlikely scenario given migration patterns, says the study. (Indian immigrants are one of the fastest growing groups in the United States, which increases from 600,000 in 1990 to 3.2 million in 2022.)

The DHS estimated in 2022 that the undocumented Indian population in the United States fell 60% since its peak of 2016, falling from 560,000 to 220,000.

How did the number of undocumented Indians so abruptly from 2016 to 2022 fell? Kapur says that the data does not provide a clear response, but plausible explanations could be that some obtained legal status, while others returned, particularly due to the difficulties related to COVID.

However, this estimate does not reflect a 2023 increase in Indians in US borders, which means that the real number could now be higher.

Despite the increase in border meetings, the Estimates of the United States Government do not show a clear increase in the undocumented Indocumented Indian population of the United States Financial Year 2020 to 2022, according to the study.

The meetings refer to cases in which non -citizens are arrested by US authorities while trying to cross the country’s borders with Mexico or Canada.

The superiors of the visa for the Indians have remained stable at 1.5% since 2016.

The number of Indian Deferred Action recipients for children’s arrivals (DACA) has also decreased from 2,600 in 2017 to 1,600 in 2024. The DACA program protects migrants who arrived in the United States when they were children.

In summary: the undocumented Indian population grew both in number and a part of all unauthorized migrants, increasing 0.8% in 1990 to 3.9% in 2015 before falling to 2% in 2022.

The United States has two main terrestrial edges.

The southern border along the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas that limits with Mexico sees the most migrants. Then there is the border between the United States and Canada that covers 11 states.

Before 2010, the meetings that involve the Indians on the two borders were minimal, they never exceed 1,000.

Since 2010, almost all the meetings involved in Indians occurred along the southern border of the United States-Mexico.

In fiscal year 2024, the meetings of Indian citizens on the northern border increased to 36% of all Indian crosses, compared to only 4% of the previous year.

Canada had become a more accessible entry point for the Indians, with processing times of shorter visitors than us.

In addition, there was an increase in the attempts at border crossings since 2021 onwards, and the meetings on the border of Mexico reached their maximum point in 2023.

“This is not specific to the Indians. It is part of a greater wave of migrants trying to enter the United States after Biden was chosen. It is as if there were a high tide of migrants and Indians told me.

The study finds that the states with the populations of the largest Indian immigrants -California (112,000), Texas (61,000), New Jersey (55,000), New York (43,000) and Illinois (31,000), also have the largest number of Indian immigrants not authorized.

Indians constitute a significant participation of the total unauthorized population in Ohio (16%), Michigan (14%), New Jersey (12%) and Pennsylvania (11%).

Meanwhile, states where more than 20% of Indian immigrants are not authorized include Tennessee, Indiana, Georgia, Wisconsin and California.

“We expect this because it is easier to mix and find work in an ethnic business, like a Gujarati who works for a Gujarati -American or a Punjabi/Sikh in a similar configuration,” Kapur told me.

The American immigration system allows people detained at the border to fear persecution in their countries of origin undergoing “credible” fear exams. Those who pass can seek asylum in court, which leads to an increase in asylum applications along with the increase in border arrests.

Administrative data does not reveal the exact demography of Indian asylum applicants, but judicial records on spoken languages ​​provide a certain idea.

Punjabi speakers of India have dominated Indian asylum claims since 2001. After Punjabi, Indian asylum seekers spoke Hindi (14%), English (8%) and Gujarati (7%).

They have presented 66% of the asylum cases of the fiscal year 2001-2022, which suggests that Punjab and the neighboring state of Haryana as key migrant sources.

Punjabi speakers of India also had the highest asylum approval rate (63%), followed by Hindi speakers (58%). In contrast, only a quarter of the cases of the speakers of Gujarati was approved.

The US data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that Indian asylum requests in the United States have shot themselves.

Applications jumped ten times in just two years, increasing approximately 5,000 in 2021 to more than 51,000 in 2023.

While this peak is more dramatic in the United States, similar trends are observed in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, where the Indians are among the largest asylum search groups, says the study.

Kapur believes that this is “to a large extent a way of playing the asylum system instead of a fear objective of persecution, since processing has been.”

Given the large number of Punjabi speakers looking Promote this increase.

Under Trump’s second presidency, asylum requests are configured to plome.

Within its first week, a key application for migrants was closed and deleted from application stores, canceling almost 300,000 pending appointments, including asylum cases that are already in progress.

American data show that most Indian asylum applicants are Punjabi and Gujarati – groups of the richest states in India, more capable of paying high migration costs.

In contrast, Indian Muslims and marginalized communities and people in conflict zones such as the regions affected by Maoist and Kashmir violence, rarely seek asylum, says the study.

Therefore, most Indian asylum applicants are economic migrants, not of the poorest or affected regions by the country’s conflicts.

The arduous trip to the US To sell or commit, says the study.

It is not surprising that Punjab and Gujarat, the main states of origin for the unauthorized Indians, are among the richest regions of India, where the values ​​of the earth far exceed the yields of agriculture.

“Even illegality requires a lot of money to pursue,” says the study.

While asyl asylum claims may seem linked to “Democratic setback” In India, correlation is not causality, say the authors.

Punjab and Gujarat have long emigration stories, with migrants who go not only the United States but also the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

Remittances – India received an estimate of $ 120 billion in 2023 – fuel aspirations for a better life, driven by poverty but “relative deprivation”, since families seek to match the success of others abroad, says the study, says the study .

A parallel industry of agents and corridors in India has charged this demand.

The Indian government, says the study, “has sought for the other way, probably because the issue of illegal migration is much more a burden to receive countries.”

Between 2009 and 2024, around 16,000 Indians were deported, according to the Ministry of External Affairs of India.

These deportations averaged 750 per year under Obama, 1,550 under Trump’s first mandate and 900 under Biden.

The removals of Indian migrants shot between fiscal year 2023 and 2024, but the peak was in 2020 with almost 2,300 deportations.