In exchange for the Trump administration safeguarding access to key visa programs for Indians, India has offered to take back 18,000 of its citizens illegally living in the United States, Bloomberg reported.
India is hoping President Donald Trump maintains the H-1B visa program, which some of his supporters oppose. Of the 386,000 H-1B visas granted in 2023, 72% came from India, according to government data.
The country also wants Trump to maintain its student visa program and prevent Trump from ramping up tariffs against it, Bloomberg reported.
Illegal immigration from India comprised about 3% of border encounters, the New York Post reported, citing the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. About 220,000 illegal immigrants from India were in the U.S. in 2022, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, on Tuesday after being sworn in, with illegal immigration one of the topics of the call, according to statement attributed to State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.
"Secretary Rubio also emphasized the Trump Administration's desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration," the statement read.
A spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs told Bloomberg the two countries have been cooperating on illegal immigration.
"As part of India-U.S. 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 U.S.," spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
"The latest deportation of Indian nationals from the U.S. by a chartered flight is a result of this cooperation."