Undocumented Indians top list of Asians caught by INS at borders

More undocumented immigrants from India are being apprehended by border patrol than any other Asian group, reports the Business Standard.

During fiscal year 2024, 90,415 authorities apprehended 90,415 people from India they say were crossing the border illegally.

The INS classified more than 78,000 as “single adults” with another 11,000 described as “individuals in a family unit.”

“That has been part of a steady increase in removals from the US of Indian nationals over the past few years, which corresponds with a general increase in encounters that we have seen with Indian nationals in the last few years as well,” then assistant secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security, Bernstein Murray, said during a media briefing in November, according to the BBC.

Authorities say some 170,000 Indian nationals have been detained at the border since October 2020.

Indian nationals represent the largest group of migrants from outside the Western Hemisphere encountered by the CBP in the past four years,” say Gil Guerra and Sneha Puri, immigration analysts at Niskanen Center, a Washington-based think tank.

What’s behind this increase from India?

“Remember this: the lowest per capita income in the US is $48,110, in the state of Mississippi. The net national income for India is about 2.4% of that (about $1,161) and Bihar has the lowest per capita income, about $708, or around 1.5% of the poorest state in the US. There will always be people looking to better their life situation,” said Russell A Stamets, Partner at Circle of Counsels.

Last fall, a man identified only as Shivan by NPR, entered the U.S. without documentation via Canada.

“I had to walk through the forest and at night it’s dark and there’s lots of trees and bushes and the forest is full of mud because of the rain,” Shivam said.

He has since applied for asylum in the U.S.

While he awaits a decision, he took a job as a rideshare driver. It’s unclear how he has been impacted by a Trump decision to pause the asylum program indefinitely.

Asylum seekers at the border currently have no way to get an appointment to apply.

A 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports imposed by Trump is set to go into effect at midnight. A similar tariff on Mexico has been paused for one month.

Trump blamed the influx of undocumented from both borders as one of the reasons he’s imposed the tariffs. Another reason he says is the fentanyl crisis.