SWANTON, VT - A recent surge in illegal immigration from India via the northern and southern borders of the United States leading to large-scale charter flights to return Indian nationals home.
In an online briefing in late October by Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Royce Bernstein Murray to U.S. State Department staff with the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in India, Murray noted, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, conducted another large-frame charter removal flight of Indian nationals who did not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States. This charter flight to the Republic of India is in addition to a regular cadence of removals that ICE conducts via commercial flights and also builds on other charter flights we have flown to India this calendar year.”
As reported by the BBC, there have been several “large-frame charter removal flight(s)” in 2024 so far each carrying over 100 illegal immigrants back to the Republic of India with the fiscal 24’ tally of Indian nationals repatriated by charter up to September exceeding 1,000 people.
“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," the BBC said.
The outlet observed that since 2020 US Customs and Border Protection agents have detained almost 170,000 illegal immigrants from India. Gil Guerra and Sneha Puri, immigration analysts at Niskanen Center told BBC, “Though smaller than the numbers from Latin America and the Caribbean, Indian nationals represent the largest group of migrants from outside the Western Hemisphere encountered by the CPB in the past four years.”
Guerra and Puri identified that Indian illegal immigration doesn’t seem to originate from the lower economic echelons but from people of means who lack higher education or English language proficiency which bars them from acquiring visas. They are typically smuggled in at costs in excess of $100,000 and are majority male and working age from 18-34.
The most common insertion point is also along the Canadian border where a visitor visa can be obtained in as little as 76 days compared to a U.S. visa which can take up to a year.
They added, “The US-Canada border is also longer and less guarded than the US-Mexico border. And while it is not necessarily safer, criminal groups do not have the same presence there as they do along the route from South and Central America.”
Internal political tensions within India between the Punjabi Sikh culture and the more numerous Hindu culture, represented by the separatist Khalistan movement, have been identified as another motivator.
The Khalistan movement seeks to establish an independent Sikh state and is opposed by Indian PM Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Support for the movement among Canadian Sikhs has become the center of a diplomatic dispute between India and Canada according to the India Times. Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India, the U.S. ranks second and the UK third.
Indian nationals stand as the third largest group of illegal immigrants present in the U.S. as of 2022 per Pew Research Center data, and they account for 22% of the foreign-born population.
As previously reported by Law Enforcement Today, there have been major spikes in encounters with Indian nationals in the Swanton Sector of the U.S.-Canadian border centered on Vermont, New York, and New Hampshire. The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) cited the U.S. Border Patrol in June, noting that the agency recorded more than 5,600 apprehensions at that point with 12,000 total in 2023 and 3,600 in 2022. In 2021, there were only 1,006 over the whole year, making the June 2024 figures an increase of over 10,000%.
In an online briefing in late October by Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Royce Bernstein Murray to U.S. State Department staff with the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in India, Murray noted, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, conducted another large-frame charter removal flight of Indian nationals who did not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States. This charter flight to the Republic of India is in addition to a regular cadence of removals that ICE conducts via commercial flights and also builds on other charter flights we have flown to India this calendar year.”
As reported by the BBC, there have been several “large-frame charter removal flight(s)” in 2024 so far each carrying over 100 illegal immigrants back to the Republic of India with the fiscal 24’ tally of Indian nationals repatriated by charter up to September exceeding 1,000 people.
“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," the BBC said.
The outlet observed that since 2020 US Customs and Border Protection agents have detained almost 170,000 illegal immigrants from India. Gil Guerra and Sneha Puri, immigration analysts at Niskanen Center told BBC, “Though smaller than the numbers from Latin America and the Caribbean, Indian nationals represent the largest group of migrants from outside the Western Hemisphere encountered by the CPB in the past four years.”
Guerra and Puri identified that Indian illegal immigration doesn’t seem to originate from the lower economic echelons but from people of means who lack higher education or English language proficiency which bars them from acquiring visas. They are typically smuggled in at costs in excess of $100,000 and are majority male and working age from 18-34.
The most common insertion point is also along the Canadian border where a visitor visa can be obtained in as little as 76 days compared to a U.S. visa which can take up to a year.
They added, “The US-Canada border is also longer and less guarded than the US-Mexico border. And while it is not necessarily safer, criminal groups do not have the same presence there as they do along the route from South and Central America.”
Internal political tensions within India between the Punjabi Sikh culture and the more numerous Hindu culture, represented by the separatist Khalistan movement, have been identified as another motivator.
The Khalistan movement seeks to establish an independent Sikh state and is opposed by Indian PM Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Support for the movement among Canadian Sikhs has become the center of a diplomatic dispute between India and Canada according to the India Times. Canada is home to the largest Sikh community outside of India, the U.S. ranks second and the UK third.
Indian nationals stand as the third largest group of illegal immigrants present in the U.S. as of 2022 per Pew Research Center data, and they account for 22% of the foreign-born population.
As previously reported by Law Enforcement Today, there have been major spikes in encounters with Indian nationals in the Swanton Sector of the U.S.-Canadian border centered on Vermont, New York, and New Hampshire. The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) cited the U.S. Border Patrol in June, noting that the agency recorded more than 5,600 apprehensions at that point with 12,000 total in 2023 and 3,600 in 2022. In 2021, there were only 1,006 over the whole year, making the June 2024 figures an increase of over 10,000%.
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