DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A post on social media is being shared with a claim that the United States and Canada have started the deportation processing of over 1.2 million Indian illegal migrants. The context is US President Donald Trump’s recent policy statements and directives on deporting undocumented illegal immigrants.
United States and Canada have approved the plan to deport 1.2 Million illegal Indian immigrants.#India #Canada pic.twitter.com/z1fC0cd5Hj
— Shoaib🇵🇰🇿🇦 (@shaibijutt55) January 24, 2025
Sharing the same post, another wrote: “Looks like the Indian government is all set to welcome back its prodigal sons and daughters thanks to the US and Canada’s new deportation plan. PM Modi must be thrilled to open his arms to 1.2 million more citizens to boost his ‘Make in India’ campaign”.
“The United States and Canada have started the deportation processing of over 1.2 million Indian illegal aliens. We’ll bet that India is accepting these deportations for a couple of reasons: – the Sikh assassinations in the US & Canada; – the hope of H1-B visas for tech-enabled Indians under the Trump administration. @narendramodi doesn’t bow his head without a larger plan in play,” said another post on X.
FACT-CHECK
According to an estimate by Pew Research, about 725,000 Indians are unauthorized immigrants currently residing in the United States. India has already announced its plans to accept 18,000 undocumented migrants from the United States but no such figures are available about illegal immigrants from India residing in Canada.
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has also stated (See video below) India’s openness to the legitimate return of Indians from the US and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) affirmed support for legal mobility while opposing illegal migration.
There is no official figure available for Canada. Even the Pew Research figures are estimates and not conclusive. However, new reports quoted MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, who said: “As part of India-US cooperation on migration and mobility, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration. This is being done to create more avenues for legal migration from India to the US.”
Moreover, India’s number of undocumented migrants to the US account for about 3% of all unlawful crossings encountered by US border patrol officials in fiscal 2024, according to US Customs and Border Protection data. Hence, the figure of 1.2 million in the US and Canada remains unauthentic until the official figures are released to the government sources. As of now, 18,000 undocumented illegal immigrants are likely to be deported. Hence, the claim is misleading.
Claim: United States and Canada have approved the plan to deport 1.2 Million illegal Indian immigrants.
Conclusion: Misleading. India has already agreed to take back 18,000 undocumented illegal immigrants but there’s no such official figure on 1.2 million illegal immigrants being returned by the US and Canada.
Rating: Misleading — 
