International Desk

The Indian government has identified 18,000 emigrants living in the US illegally that it intends to repatriate in a bid to ease pressures under Donald Trump, according to reports.

Sources who spoke to Bloomberg said the Indian government was collaborating with the US authorities to identify undocumented Indian immigrants for deportation in order to demonstrate a willingness to work closely with the new Trump administration and protect legal immigration visas for Indian citizens.

Many of Trump’s first executive actions in office have targeted illegal immigration into the US, including declaring a national border emergency and mobilising troops along the US-Mexico border.

Sources told Bloomberg that while 18,000 people of Indian origin living in the US illegally had been identified so far, the true number was likely far higher. According to the Pew Research Center, there are an estimated 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, making them the third largest group after those from Mexico and El Salvador.

The move to identify and deport Indian immigrants was described as an attempt to placate Trump just as he takes office. The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, is seen as having a close personal relationship with Trump and the pair regularly refer to each other as a “great friends”. However, the US president has also made threats of steep trade tariffs for India as part of his America-first policy, which would be crippling for India, and the Modi government is thought to be desperate to avoid any trade conflicts.

The Indian government did not confirm the deportation figure but said they were working closely with the US to tackle the problem of illegal immigration. Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs, said: “As part of India-US cooperation on migration and mobility, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration. This is being done to create more avenues for legal migration from India to the US.”

Jaiswal emphasised that the process had already begun, pointing to a deportation flight in October that brought back more than 100 undocumented Indians from the US, and said that more than 1,000 people had been brought back over the past year.

A key priority for the Indian government is to protect the status of the H-1B visa for skilled migrants to the US, often used in sectors such as technology and engineering. Indians accounted for almost 75% of all H-1B visas given out in 2023, and they are seen as a vital lifeline for Indian workers aspiring to move to the US for better employment prospects.

Yet some Republicans have alleged that the visas are allowing foreigners to take prestigious jobs that should go to Americans. Trump initially called them “very, very bad” for US workers but more recently appeared to soften his stance and referred to it as a “great programme”.

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space X who helped bankroll Trump’s campaign and is now taking a prominent place in his government, has also expressed his backing for the H1-B scheme.

With Trump threatening mass deportations, the strategy by Modi’s government to spearhead the deportations was considered to be a move to prevent any potential embarrassment from tens of thousands of Indians being sent home by the US.

The India-US relationship is regarded by both sides as being on an upwards trajectory, with the Biden administration making great efforts to deepen ties with India as a geopolitical counterweight to China, even as India was accused of carrying out an attempted extrajudicial killing on US soil.

Since Trump’s election in November, the Modi government has made stringent efforts to show its willingness to work closely with Trump on his return to office. Speaking late last year, India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said: “I know today a lot of countries are nervous about the US, let’s be honest about it. We are not one of them.”

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