The paradox, economic blowback of deporting undocumented Indian immigrants

In January 2022, four members of a family, from the western Indian state of Gujarat, froze to death at the US-Canada border. The couple and their two children had paid a hefty amount to traffickers to be smuggled into the US for what they thought would be a better life. Instead, they perished in the cold.

Jagdish Patel, Vaishaliben and their children Vihangi and Dharmik were lured by the promise of a prosperous life in the US, probably unaware of the perils on the way. They were perhaps unaware of the hostile terrain that America presents to the undocumented.

In the run-up to the US presidential elections, Donald Trump promised to deport such undocumented/unauthorised immigrants, people he terms “illegal”. The US has been “removing” “inadmissible or deportable” migrants since the 19th century, but the deportation rhetoric has never before been stronger.

In 2022, Pew Research Center, a self-proclaimed non-partisan think tank, estimated 725,000 unauthorised Indian immigrants living in the US, a number second only to people from neighbouring Mexico and El Salvador. This number, along with the 18,000 identified by the Indian administration as living “illegally” in the US, have often been referred to in news and discussions about the matter.

Various international organisations, including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the UN General Assembly, the…

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