1,080 Indians deported from US since January: MEA
Sixty-two percent of them had returned on commercial flights, said the Ministry of External Affairs.
One thousand and eighty Indians have been deported from the United States since January, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.
The statement, by ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, came in response to a question about deportation of Indian citizens from the United States.
“We have close cooperation between India and the US over the migration issue,” Jaiswal said during a press briefing. “On deportation of Indian nationals who have an illegal status there, who travelled there illegally, we take them back once we receive details about them.”
The ministry verifies the nationalities of those being deported before it tries to “get them back”, he said.
“Since January 2025, we have 1,080 Indians who have come back or who have been deported from the United States,” the ministry spokesperson said. “Of these, 62% of them have come on commercial flights.”
VIDEO | In response to a media query on deportation of Indian nationals from the US, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) says, "We have close cooperation between Indian and the US over migration issue. On deportation of Indian nationals who have… pic.twitter.com/Q2yZ1pIwIL
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 29, 2025
The statement comes amid the tightening of immigration regulations under the Donald Trump administration. 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 in February that the persons had been shackled in keeping with past procedure.
The Trump administration has also instructed United States embassies worldwide to pause scheduling student visa interviews as it prepares to expand social media screening of applicants, reports on Wednesday said.
On Tuesday, the United States government warned Indians studying in American educational institutes that their student visas may be revoked if they dropped out or skipped classes without prior notice.
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 United States 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
