We want Indian talent and Indian skills to have the maximum opportunity at the global level. At the same time, we are also very firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration S Jaishankar External Affairs Minister

metro india news  I hyderabad

The External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar did not mince words and was forthright in a bilateral meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Tuesday (Jan 23) a day after Trump's inauguration.

He expressed India’s willingness to facilitate the legitimate return of undocumented Indians residing in the United States and in the same breath also showed his disappointment over the inordinate delays in Indians securing US visas did ‘not serve’ the bilateral relationship between the two countries.  The delay in visas constrains people to people contacts that act as the very basis of the relationship. The relationship is not well served if there is a delay of 400 days in issuing visas to Indian nationals,” he said

The minister also reiterated India’s consistent policy of accepting verified illegal immigrants confirmed as Indian nationals, noting that this stance applies universally to all countries.  While he said India was open to facilitate the legitimate return of undocumented Indians residing in the United States, the figure of 20,000 Indians facing deportation, cited by the US border authorities needs to be validated. 

“I’ve seen some numbers. I caution you about them because for us a number is operative when we can actually validate the fact that the individual concerned is of Indian origin,” he said.  Jaishankar was responding to a query on news reports that India was working with the Trump administration on the deportation of around 18,000 Indians who are either undocumented, or have overstayed their visas.

Jayshankar emphasized that New Delhi is currently verifying the identities of those eligible for deportation, stating that precise number of individuals cannot yet be determined. "We want Indian talent and Indian skills to have the maximum opportunity at the global level. At the same time, we are also very firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration," Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters in Washington on Wednesday.

"So, with every country, and the US is no exception, we have always taken the view that if any of our citizens are here illegally, and if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been open to their legitimate return to India." The most recent US census showed its Indian-origin population had grown by 50 per cent to 4.8 million in the decade to 2020, while more than a third of the nearly 1.3 million Indian students studying abroad in 2022 were in the United States.