How Indians are flooding the US illegally

Indians are living the “American dream,” but the illegal way. A massive number of Indian immigrants are entering the United States via its southern border, with 42,000 intercepted in the past year alone, The Wall Street Journal reported citing new federal statistics. The deadly Darien Gap, numerous stops in other countries that don’t require visas, travel via Canada and Mexico, and more were among the methods that Indians were entering the US. Let’s take a closer look. Rising number of Indians entering the US illegally US Customs and Border Protection released the figure last month, and it is more than twice as high as the amount from the same time previous year, when the number of Indian crossings was already at a record high. After setting a new monthly record, the total number of migrant encounters for the fiscal year increased to 2.48 million from 2.38 million in 2022, marking a first for history. Between February 2019 and March this year, a staggering 1.49 lakh Indians were detained while attempting illegal entry into the US, as per US Customs and Border Protection. Furthermore, in the midst of the growing problem, 1,600 more people have crossed the northern border, which is four times more than in the previous three years combined. The majority of them surrender to the Border Patrol. A large number of Indian immigrants enter the country for economic reasons as well, although they are not eligible for asylum. Their desperation to leave stemmed from the absence of well-paying jobs. To pay smugglers, they frequently sell everything they own. A large number of the migrants are influenced by other Indians who came to the US in a similar way and found employment there. Smugglers and travel agents are profiting greatly on the predicament of illegal migrants by charging exorbitant fees to assist in crossing the border. Donkey flight Individuals who are escaping their home nations are often drawn to traffickers who use “donkey flights”—a word taken from a Punjabi saying meaning “to hop from one area to another”—to offer migrants access into another country. It’s a tactic that takes advantage of immigration loopholes by entering a foreign country through multiple stops in other countries. Speakinjg to The Wall Street Journal, Arshdeep Singh, a 23-year-old who hailed from Punjab, opened up about his 40-day journey to the US this summer. Instead of being arrested while trying to avoid being caught, he turned himself in to request asylum, which was granted prior to his arrival in Fresno, California in Southern California. He first travelled from New Delhi to Hungary, where he was kept in a small room for 10 days and given just bread and water to eat. After that, he travelled to France and finally Mexico City, where he was again kept in a room for a further week. He then boarded another plane, hopped a bus, and eventually hitched a ride to the US border, he claimed. He crossed into California and was brought to a processing centre where he observed numerous other people who had travelled from India in a similar manner. “The Darien Gap” route A number of videos depicting men and women travelling in different ways to reach America have appeared on social media. One such is the Darien jungle, a dangerous 66-mile journey between Panama and Colombia that leads to both Central America and the United States. It is thought to be among the riskiest and most difficult migration routes in the world. The Darién Gap is home to a variety of venomous animals, such as snakes, jaguars, and scorpions. Not only does the terrain have steep hills, dense forest, and quicksand, but it’s also very challenging to manoeuvre, according to Financial Express. In a clip, a parade of presumably Indian as seen traversing a stretch of the Darien Gap, a dayslong trek across the rugged Colombia-Panama border, reported Dailymail. Few people ever dared to attempt the crossing because of its extreme danger, but given the severity of the current migration crisis, a large number of migrants now cross through its deep jungles in an attempt to reach and pass through Mexico. The Panama National Migration Service released the following data: in 2020, there were 6,465 migrants, a low number reflecting the pandemic and its restrictions; however, in 2021, that number increased to 133,000; in 2022, it nearly doubled to 248,284 people; and from January to April of 2023, 127,000 migrants from various countries braved crossing the Darien. “To date, Venezuela, Haiti, Ecuador, China, and Colombia are the first five countries with alarming figures, followed by Chile and India. The latter, with more than 2,900 Indian nationals who decided to make this dangerous journey in 2023, a figure that represents more than 50 percent of the total for the year 2022, in which 4,094 people of Indian origin decided to make this risky journey,” Financial Express quoted Cristhian Salamanca Garcia, Hybrid Professional & Trade Promotion and Intercultural Management between India & Colombia, as saying. The influx of undocumented immigrants persists despite devastating events in which families died while making these dangerous trips. Ten metres from the US-Canada border, in the Dingucha village of Gandhinagar, a family of four lost their lives in January of last year. According to Dailymail, similarly, in April this year, a plan to enter the US illegally by a Mehsana family ended tragically in the St. Lawrence River. After learning of a sinking boat close to the southern border, US officials later in April managed to save all six Indians from the Saint Regis River. Seven additional Indians were detained by the police in August last year as they attempted to cross from Quebec into the US. Entering the US via Canada, Mexico 8,076 Indians were apprehended in September for illegal entry into the US via a variety of means, according to data cited by Economic Times. Between October 2022 and September of this year, the US-Canada border saw 3,059 of these cases, which represents the greatest monthly total of such arrests. Many of these illegal immigrants — the most of whom are from Gujarat — have either settled in Canada or are awaiting a chance to enter the United States, according to sources close to the Times of India. The number of illegal immigrants apprehended while attempting to enter the US increased from 2,327 in August to 3,059 in September. Four children were found alone among those detained, four with a family member accompanying them, and 530 with their parents and siblings. The largest group included 2,521 adult singles. Four Indians who were attempting to cross the border illegally were found dead this past April near the US-Canada border after their boat overturned and killed them all. According to Dailymail, in the past, illegal immigrants from India have favoured entering the US through the border with Mexico over the border with Canada. In order to get entrance to the US, numerous smugglers who pose as travel agents, take advantage of the migratory highway, which is comparable to the many kilometres of goods trains snaking through Mexico. However, in September, the number of arrests on the US-Mexico border closely mirrored those reported at the US-Canada border, totaling 3,862. It’s not only from India According to The WSJ, overall, there is illegal immigration to the US from all over the world. As per the research, at the end of the fiscal year 2023, two million people from all over the world were detained for crossing borders illegally. According to data, Mexico leads the world in infiltrators with 21 lakh, followed by Honduras with 6.42 lakh, Guatemala with 6.37 lakh, Cuba with 4.06 lakh, and Venezuela with 3.23 lakh. Illegal immigrants from nearby nations make up the majority. “It really is pointing to this huge trend of mass migration worldwide. We’re seeing that people from other countries are making their way to the US border, when traditionally they haven’t,” Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an analyst for the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, told the outlet. US’ efforts to handle the crisis According to Dailymail, administration officials have attributed the increase in border crossings to migration from non-Western Hemisphere countries like India and the US’s inability to effectively handle the influx of illegal immigrants at the southern border. The US’s poor relations with other nations exacerbate the situation and make it exceedingly difficult and expensive to impose an immigration quota. The increase in immigration, however, highlights the severity of the border humanitarian problem and the political hurdle it poses for President Joe Biden in his bid for reelection in 2024. Troy A. Miller, the acting CBP commissioner, in a statement last week that the CPB “will continue to remain vigilant, making operational adjustments as necessary and enforcing consequences under US immigration law.” Miller described the amount of migration as “historic” and stated that CBP was addressing the problem and stepping up enforcement with both international and domestic partners. A $106 billion budget plan was unveiled last week, and the Biden administration has included a $14 billion proposal for the border in it. It has also maintained that Congress must assist in finding a long-term solution. The White House plan calls for allocating $1.6 billion to the recruitment of 1,600 additional processing staff members and asylum officers, potentially tripling the number of staff members handling asylum claims. It also recommends allocating around $1.4 billion of the total to fund the hiring of 1,300 additional border patrol personnel as well as the recruitment of 375 immigration judges and their teams. With inputs from agencies