• The US Customs and Border Protection report shows the number of Indians trying to enter the US illegally has increased fivefold.
• These intruders primarily hail from Gujarat and Punjab in India and aspire to settle in America
• As per the data, close to 97,000 Indians have chosen to take these hazardous routes to cross into the US despite the tragic loss of lives on the US’ southern borders as well as the northern borders.
• Out of these, 30,010 were caught entering the US illegally through the Canadian border and 41,770 were caught trying to enter the US illegally through the Mexican border.
• Single adults are the largest category, the report said that 84,000 single adults were apprehended at the US border in recent times.

The US Customs and Border Protection data shows that a record 96,917 Indians were apprehended while crossing into the US illegally between October 2022 and September 2023.   This comes at a time when attempts to enter the US in recent years have resulted in tragic deaths, especially when such intrusions were attempted via dangerous routes. Of the 96,917 individuals held, 30,010 were caught at the Canada border, while another 41,770 were apprehended at the Mexico border. The rest were tracked down after they had entered US territory. The latest figure is five times the 19,883 Indians caught in 2019-20, the report said.   Law enforcement agencies have said that these numbers represent the cases when the intruders were caught. In other words, the actual number of Indians that entered the US territory illegally could be much higher than this figure. A police officer in Gujarat told the newspaper, "This is just the tip of the iceberg. For every person caught at the border, there may be at least 10 others who successfully infiltrated the US."   The police officer added that these intruders primarily hail from Gujarat and Punjab and aspire to settle in America. The individuals arrested on the US borders are classified under four categories: Single adults, unaccompanied children, children accompanied by family members, and entire families. Single adults make up the largest category. This time, the number of single adults held at the US border stood at 84,000. Moreover, 730 unaccompanied children were also detained at the US border.  

The report said that the illegal flow of immigrants is likely to have gone up after the end of a policy Title 42 in May, which was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. This policy allowed the US authorities to deport illegal immigrants without asylum hearings.

  While Gujarat police, US, Indian, and Canadian agencies are trying to quell the flow of illegal immigration, their efforts have yielded little, The report said. This is even when families have been exposed to life-threatening risks in their pursuit of illegal entry into the US. A case in point is the Dingucga village tragedy and the Mehsana family's drowning in the St Lawrence River in April.   The report cited central agencies and the Gujarat police and reported that although many Indian nationals are caught in the US every year, very few face deportation as they are granted shelter in the US on humanitarian grounds.  

(With inputs from agencies)