In February, India’s radio waves flooded with undocumented images of unchained and undocumented Indians in a military deportation flight from the US. The shocking image reveals the devastating impact of President Donald Trump’s harsh crackdown on “illegal immigration” on the lives of thousands of vulnerable Indian citizens who took all the risks to America.
Opposition lawmakers, including Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Assembly, handcuffed and protested the humiliating treatment outside the assembly in New Delhi. All this happened on the eve of Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House, so they demanded that the Indian Prime Minister take up the issue with the US President.
However, during his US press conference, Modi answered questions about deportation, saying that his Bharatiya Janata-led (BJP-led) government is “fully prepared to revive illegal immigrants.” He added: “The young, vulnerable and poor people in India are being fooled by immigrants. These are children of very ordinary families who are fascinated by big dreams and big promises. Many are brought in without knowing why they are being brought in.
This response was extraordinarily meek and comfortable for the leader of the Hindu nationalist regime known for its muscular jingoism. It appears that Modi is trying to avoid a Voldy Mir Zelensky-style bust-up with Trump, especially with the ongoing negotiations on mutual tariffs. This may be true, but it is also important to remember that Modi and Trump are on the same page when it comes to immigration.
Like his American counterpart, Modi relies on an epic vision and claims about his people. This includes the BJP government’s bold declaration on the economic health of India.
At this point, the Indian economy is facing a troubling slowdown, but there is also a long-term, far more entrenched problem: inequality. In the world’s most populous countries, the top 1% accounts for 40.1% of its citizens. By the end of 2024, India had 19.1 billion units, ranking third in the world after the US and China. Meanwhile, it accounted for 70% of the global increase in extreme poverty. India is also the country with the largest population (234 million) living in extreme poverty.
The undocumented Indian immigrants in the US are a manifestation of this bleak reality. Estimates for their exact numbers vary. The Pew Research Center estimates that there were 700,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the United States at the end of 2022, making the Indians the third largest national group after Mexicans and Salvadrians. The Ministry of Homeland Security estimated that there are 220,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the country.
This cohort of undocumented people, regardless of the exact size of their population, contradicts the rosy image of the economic powers under the Hindu nationalist leadership. This is why Modi is keen to close this “illegal immigration” story as quickly and gently as possible. He doesn’t want a skirmish with Trump over undocumented treatment of immigrants.
But in India, anti-immigrant discourse like Trump is not odd either. For several years, Indian rights have ritually raised the issue of the tragedy of undocumented migration, particularly from Bangladesh.
In 2016, then-Director Ministry Kiren Rijiju state claimed there were “20 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, India.” In 2018, Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah said there were more than 40 million undocumented immigrants in the country. In 2023, right-wing politicians also argued that India currently has nearly 50 million undocumented immigrants.
There is no real evidence to back up these numbers.
However, for Indian Hindu nationalists, these claims evoke a strong image of claims about the existence of an undercover and undocumented Muslim population, and fit well with the Islamophobic discourse of the Hindu state facing existential threats from its neighbors.
Unfounded claims about the threat of “illicit immigration” from Bangladesh allow Indian right-wing politicians to denounce undocumented “outsiders” due to the country’s light letter of economic disadvantage. As Shah once said, “They (Bangladeshi immigrants) are eating grains that should go to the poor.” Elsewhere, Shah had to call undocumented immigrants “termites” and “intruders” and uproot them. While on the 2019 campaign trail, Shah also promised that the BJP government would “pick up the intruders one by one and throw them into the Bay of Bengal.”
These unfounded claims allow Hindu nationalists to awaken fears about demographic challenges to the Hindu state. In a television interview, for example, Ashwini Upadhyai, the leader of the BJP’s Delhi force, hinted at the threat of the majority position of the Hindu population.
He said India was founded as a “Hindu country” and that this identity has been diluted by “illicitors”, “(Muslim) Rohingyas” and “(Muslim) hideouts”.
Similarly, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar argued that “illegal migration” is causing “demographic upheaval.” He noted that the cohort is putting excessive stress on the country’s health and education sector and depriving citizens of employment opportunities, and said it undermines democracy by gaining “election relevance.” He also warned that if left unchecked, Hindu ethnic identity will be undermined by such “demographic aggression.”
Finally, it is equally common to hear from Indian rights that “illegal migration” is synonymous with crime. In a statement to the House of Representatives of India, Foreign Minister Jaishankar said: Jaishankar mentioned undocumented Indian immigration in the US, but in India authorities similarly argue that there is a “highly oily” criminal network that helps undocumented immigrants obtain residence, employment, fake birth certificates and ultimately gain the right to vote. This led to police attacks like Trump and driving deportation targeting Bangladesh and the Rohingya.
It was Indian Bengali-speaking Muslim citizens who were caught up in these attacks. A few years ago, a survey revealed that more Bangladeshi migrants had left than they had entered the country. But in an era of the rise of rights, this is not a problem. Whether it’s Trump’s US or Modi’s India, it’s always an outsider who’s been blamed for domestic troubles.
It is this mentality that drives the anti-immigration wave in both India and the US. India provided the rationale for legal manipulation, such as the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019, excluded Muslims from neighboring countries from gaining Indian citizenship.
Modi may be the prime minister of a Hindu nationalist government, but in the name of protecting undocumented American Indians, there is no risk of damaging relations with Trump. His view on immigration is the same as that of Trump, and he only emptied undocumented people, even though he happens to be Indian citizens.
The views expressed in this article are the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.