The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday said that 2,417 Indians have been deported from the United States since January.

“We want to promote legal pathways of migration,” ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. “India stands against illegal migration.”

Jaiswal stated that in all deportation cases, persons claimed to be Indian nationals are accepted only after a background check confirms their citizenship. “And this is what has been happening with deportations from the United States,” he said.

The spokesperson added that several Union ministries are coordinating with state governments to crack down on visa fraud and agents facilitating illegal migration.

“We have also been issuing regular advisories for our nationals to stay away from the kind of employment opportunities that are being offered in Southeast Asia that you saw, or the advisory that we recently issued on Iran and several such movements that have taken place recently,” he added.

Since January, the Donald Trump administration in the US has been tightening of immigration regulations. In some cases, the US government had used military aircraft to repatriate undocumented migrants.

The Opposition had criticised the Indian government after videos showed the Indian deportees on US military aircraft having been shackled. But External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had told the Rajya Sabha on February 6 that the persons had been shackled in keeping with past procedure.

The foreign ministry has said it has not received any complaints about the alleged mistreatment of deportees after February 5.

On May 19, the US Department of State announced visa restrictions on persons working with Indian travel agencies found to have been “knowingly facilitating illegal immigration” to the United States.

A 2022 US Department of Homeland Security report estimated that 2.2 lakh undocumented Indian migrants were living in the country.

Also read: The paradox, economic blowback of deporting undocumented Indian immigrants

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