The family arrived at a gorgeously carved temple in western India, holding special sweet dried milk and clear butter. It was a desperate dedication for their son's safety. He had just traveled to the United States a few days before Trump promised a fierce crackdown on illegal immigrants.
In the village of Gujarat, the hometown of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there are immigration markers everywhere. A plaque donation of a trumpet of a building from an Indian in the United States. The house is trapped and sits empty, and their owners are currently in the United States -Many are legally, not many.
Mr. Trump's large -scale expulsion of the illegal immigrant has given the largest alarm in countries near the United States, like Mexico and Central America. However, fear, uncertainty, and the possibility of political impact have spread to India.
According to the Pew Research Center, India is one of the biggest source of illegal immigrants in the United States. As of 2022, more than 700,000 non -documented Indians lived in the United States, and the centers were the third largest group after the Mexican and the Salvador.
Some Indians have arrived legally and exaggerate their visa. According to US government data, about 90,000 Indians were arrested when about 90,000 Indians in 2023, in 2023, when about 90,000 Indians tried to enter the United States illegally.
The Indian government, which has expanded the relationship between the United States, technology, and trade, has stated that it is more confident that most of the worldwide calculations with another “US -first” administration are more than in any position. Modi had a bond with Mr. Trump and called him a “my beloved friend.”
Nevertheless, there are signs that India is trying to keep Trump on a good side by cooperating with his clamp down on illegal migration.
The Indian news agency reported last week that the government has regained 18,000 illegal immigrants in India under the so -called final removal order.
According to these reports, India's goal is to protect legal routes for immigrants to the United States, such as skilled worker visas, and avoid punishment that threatens Trump's illegal immigration. 。 Supporting his administration can save the embarrassment of India's advertising in Trump's crackdown.
Indian officials did not check the details of the news report to the New York Times. However, they said that the expulsion from the United States to India was not new, but more than 1,000 Indians were sent back last year, and they were working with the Trump administration.
“Our position is that we are opposed to illegal migration,” said Randil Jaiswal, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “We have been involved in the US authorities in controlling illegal immigrants in the view that we are creating more measures for legal immigration from India to the United States.”
These legal routes, that is, H-1B visa and student visa for skilled workers, is a fierce debate among Trump's supporters. ELON MUSK and other high-tech moggles need an H-1B visa to recruit the best talent in the United States. More ethnic voices say that their work has been filled by those visa owners.
The State Department said that the Trump administration would cooperate with India to “address concerns related to irregular immigration.” Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, held the first two -country conference with India's Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday. This indicates the growing importance of the United States and India.
In India, the focus of intensifying to migration is politically sensitive.
In decades, Modi, the strongest leader in the country, has ultimately thrown himself as the fundamental force of economic growth, which makes India a developed country. However, according to police officers, his hometown, Gujarat State, was once welcomed as an economic miracle under his guidance, but is one of the biggest source of illegal immigration to the United States.
Washington is looking to India as a replacement for China in global industrial rule, but its uniform economy is one of the most unequal ones in the world, and many Indians still go to the United States. It hinders a big risk.
Almost all families have a legal or illegal member of the United States in the Maesana area of ​​Gwarat. Some people return to the annual visit to see their aunt and uncle. Mehsana frequently appears in the news and has been reported that immigrants are dead while they are climbing the border wall in the United States, reaching the coast by boat during the winter, crossing the frozen northern borders. I will reach.
The migration to the United States was traditionally status symbol between the gujarates. Families without members in the United States have a hard time to match their children in marriage, and their son and daughter -in -law are illegally in the United States Jagdish, a local university worker (55). )
Jagdish, who asked him to not use his surname, said he spent five months in Mexico, waiting for his son to cross the border five years ago. When he entered the United States, he was imprisoned for three months before being released. He is currently working in a cafe there, and his wife joined him last year.
According to Jagdish, “the money earned and earned, the savings of my life,” and the family took over $ 70,000 to take it to the United States, a mixture of the loan.
“I don't buy new clothes, I have reduced fruits and milk,” he said. “You need to repay your loan.”
Outside of the village temples, a husband and wife who operated a subway franchise in the United States, which lived for 20 years, visited once a year. Her husband, Rajanicant Patel, was relieved to be tired of Trump's “nobody knowing” air, featuring many stories about the new administration.
“Trump will do what he has to do,” Patel said. “But Trump needs people to work there. We are a worker there. It is a very huge country. Who works and manages there?”
Indians began to move to the United States in large numbers in the 1960s. India is one of the poorest countries in the world, and American immigration policy has been alleviated.
Pull is still strong today, and India is the fifth economy in the world. Given the enormous inequality, economic growth is not necessarily converted to a better service or higher living level.
“I can't compare the quality of life here,” said Patel's wife, Nira Ben.
Immigration consultant said that the number of visitors has been reduced, as it has become difficult to enter the United States, the tightening of the Biden administration, and that Trump has increased significantly.
Varun Sharma, the director of the immigrant consultant company, said that about half of the potential clients had asked about illegal routes to the United States. He said he would refuse them carefully.
Many unwanted immigrants are now from a new middle class. In some cases, Indians who arrive at a student visa will stay beyond the expiration date. Otherwise, immigrants first fly to the third country on a visa of the visitors, and then slowly head to the United States on land or sea.
Vishnu Bai Patel, a nearby village lemon radar, said, “I hope that Trump wants a certain amount of broken family like me. He in the United States. He said that his daughter studying engineering remained after graduation and wanted to invite him legally.
“My dream is that she won't return again,” he said.
Mujib Machar Contributed from New Delhi.
