India Willing to Take Back 18K Illegal Migrants From US
23rd January 2025
In exchange for the Trump administration safeguarding access to key visa programs for Indians, India has offered to take back 18,000 of its citizens illegally living in the United States, Bloomberg reported.
India is hoping President Donald Trump maintains the H-1B visa program, which some of his supporters oppose. Of the 386,000 H-1B visas granted in 2023, 72% came from India, according to government data.
The country also wants Trump to maintain its student visa program and prevent Trump from ramping up tariffs against it, Bloomberg reported.
India is not using illegal migration to the U.S. to dump its underclass, as Mexico has done for the past sixty years. These are mostly high-tech workers and bright university students who just figure that they can make more money in the U.S.–India wants them back to reverse the ‘brain drain’.