India says it is ‘open’ to return of its undocumented immigrants in US
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (right) shaking hands with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Washington, the US, on Jan 21.
PHOTO: AFP
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India is prepared to take back its citizens residing illegally in the United States, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has said after meeting the top diplomat of US President Donald Trump’s new administration.
Dr Jaishankar’s remarks came after a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Jan 21 a day after Mr Trump’s inauguration.
Mr Trump issued a raft of executive orders this week
Dr Jaishankar said New Delhi was open to taking back undocumented Indians and was in the process of verifying those in the US who could be deported to India.
“We want Indian talent and Indian skills to have the maximum opportunity at the global level. At the same time, we are also very firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration,” Dr Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters in Washington on Jan 22.
“So, with every country, and the US is no exception, we have always taken the view that if any of our citizens are here illegally, and if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been open to their legitimate return to India.”
Dr Jaishankar was responding to a query on news reports that India was working with the Trump administration on the deportation of around 18,000 Indians who are either undocumented, or have overstayed their visas.
Mr Rubio had “emphasised the Trump administration’s desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration”, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a readout after Jan 21’s meeting.
India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and enjoys world-beating gross domestic product growth, but hundreds of thousands of its citizens still leave the country each year seeking better opportunities abroad.
While its diaspora spans the globe, the US remains the destination of choice.
The most recent US census showed its Indian-origin population had grown by 50 per cent to 4.8 million in the decade to 2020, while more than a third of the nearly 1.3 million Indian students studying abroad in 2022 were in the US. AFP
