India has good reason to help Trump erect a border wall
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India is proud of its diaspora. People of Indian extraction tend to earn well over the average wage in most countries, and often fit seamlessly and unobtrusively into local power structures.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a point of cultivating Indians abroad and sometimes gifts foreign leaders a bit of his star power for their own campaigns. He attended a joint rally in Texas during President Donald Trump’s first term, for example. So, the subject of illegal Indian migrants to the US would appear to require delicate handling.
According to Bloomberg News, the incoming administration has identified at least 18,000 Indian citizens living in the US illegally and wants them sent back. That number could grow: The Pew Research Center estimated in 2022 that Indian citizens make up the third-largest community of undocumented immigrants in the US; there might be as many as 725,000 of them. The composition of the most recent arrivals is particularly sensitive.
While hard data is lacking, reports suggest that many if not most are young men from the western states of Punjab and Gujarat. Both regions are relatively well-off; Gujarat in particular has long been touted as a model of development—especially by Modi, who rode to national power by selling his record as that state’s growth-minded chief minister. If it turns out that young people from such prosperous areas are being driven to follow the ‘donkey route’ to the US, a few questions might begin to be asked about the famous ‘Gujarat model’ of economic growth.
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