In January 2022, an Indian family of four froze to death after trudging through knee-to-waist-deep snow for 11 hours while trying to cross the border from Canada to the United States. In May 2022, the US Customs and Border Protection rescued six Indian nationals from a sinking boat in the St Regis River in Akwesasne, United States, as they were being smuggled across the border from Cornwall, Canada.
These two isolated incidents are part of a bigger picture of the dangers of human traffickers preying upon Indians with the 'American dream.' Posing as travel agents and visa consultants, well-connected smuggling cartels sell the dream of residing in the US for hefty prices of over $20,000. As a result, unknowing of the risks, people often embark on dangerous journeys and, if successful, become undocumented immigrants in the US - rife with its own set of consequences. Undocumented immigrants refer to those who reside in the US without authorization to do so.
In the last decade, undocumented Indian immigrants in the US have increased from 200,000 in 2010 to over half a million individuals recorded in 2021.
According to a report published by the American think-tank New American Economy, India has climbed up three spots since 2010 to be among the top three countries of origin of undocumented immigrants in the US, trailing just behind Mexico at 4.3 million immigrants and El Salvador at 621,000.
However as per the report, the 587,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US hold a collective spending power of $15.5 billion and contribute $2.8 billion to the federal, state, and local tax revenue.
"Zooming out again to the top five countries of origin among undocumented immigrants, we find that across the board, undocumented immigrants are significant economic contributors as earners, taxpayers, and consumers," the report stated.
Unlike most immigrants entering the US who are fleeing persecution and economic hardship - Indian immigrants do not necessarily represent the poorest of the poor in the country, with the fee paid to a smuggler being over $20,000.
An increasing number of Indian nationals are being led by smuggling cartels to make the long and arduous journey to enter the US. Since the start of the pandemic, the number of nationwide encounters with the US Customs Border Protection of Indian nationals attempting to cross the border illegally has more than tripled from over 1,900 encounters in March 2020 to over 6,000 encounters in June 2022.
This massive jump in the numbers may be due to the economic conditions due to the pandemic.
However, not all undocumented Indian immigrants are smuggled into the country but overstay their visas. According to the Centre for Migration Studies, 330,000 Indians overstayed their visas out of nearly 3.5 million undocumented immigrants who entered the country between 2010 and 2017 – the most from any country.
In 2018 - the year that saw the highest number of detentions across the southern US border - nearly 9,000 were Indians out of 467,000 detainees. But ten years ago, the number of Indians detained were only 77.
An undocumented migrant lacks the protections usually offered to individuals residing in the US. This includes being ineligible for unemployment benefits and uninsured, limiting access to healthcare coverage options.
When Biden took office in January of last year, his administration introduced the ambitious US Citizenship Act of 2021, which is currently being deliberated in Congress. The Act provides an eight-year pathway for the 11 million undocumented immigrants to become citizens.
If the US Citizenship Act of 2021 is passed, the half million undocumented Indians currently in the US stand a chance to become US Citizens.
