The family arrived in a lavishly carved temple in Western India, carrying a special dry milk candy and a purified butter. It was a desperate offer for their son’s safety: he just moved to the United States, just days before President Trump took over the duty, promising a fierce agreement of illegal immigration.

In their village in the Gujarat, the birthplace of Prime Minister Narendre Modi, migration markings are everywhere. Tiles on trumpet buildings about the donations of Indians from America. The houses are locked and empty, their owners now in the United States – many legal, many not.

Mr. Trump’s threats with mass deportations of illegal immigrants caused the most vocal alarm in countries closer to the United States, such as Mexico and Central America. But fear and uncertainty – and the potential for political consequences – are also circling India.

India is one of the main sources of illegal immigration to the United States, According to Pew Research Center. Since 2022. More than 700,000 Indians have lived in the United States without documents, estimates the center, making them the third largest group, behind Mexicans and Honduras.

Some Indians arrive legally and expire the visa. Others are unauthorized by the borders: only in 2023, about 90,000 Indians were arrested as they tried to enter the United States illegally, according to the US government.

The Indian government, which expanded defense, technological and trade connections with the United States, expressed the belief that it was better positioned than most others to overcome global showdowns with another administration “America first”. Mr. Modi has a relationship with Mr Trump, calling him a “my dear friend” as he congratulated him on taking his duty for the second time.

Nevertheless, there are signs that India is trying to keep Mr. Trump on the good side by working with his suppression of illegal migration.

Indian newspaper houses reported last week that the Government worked with a new administration to return 18,000 Indian illegal immigrants who are under the so -called final removal orders.

According to these reports, the goal of India is to protect their legal paths to move in to the United States, such as a visa for qualified workers, and avoid the criminal customs duties that Mr. Trump threatened to impose on illegal migration. Helping his administration could also spare India’s inconvenience to be caught in the publicity of Mr Trump’s suffocation.

Indian officials did not want to confirm the details of newspaper reports for The New York Times. But they noticed that deportations from the United States in India were not novelty – more than 1000 Indians were returned last year – and said they were working with Trump’s administration.

“Our view is that we are against illegal migration,” said Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry. “We cooperate with the US authorities on combating illegal immigration, with the aim of creating more opportunities for legal migration from India to the United States”

These legal routes – namely, visits of H -1B for qualified workers and visas for students – were the subject of a fierce discussion among Mr. Trump’s supporters. Elon Musk and other technologically moguls say that the visas of H-1B are needed to recruit the best talents to the United States. More nationalist votes say that these visa owners should belong to the Americans.

State Department said Trump’s administration works with India “solving concern about irregular migration.” The new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, held his first bilateral meeting on Tuesday with the Indian Foreign Minister, S. Jaishankar-which is an indicator of the increasing importance of American-Indian.

Increased focus on migration is politically sensitive in India.

Mr. Modi, the most powerful head of the country in the last few decades, has introduced himself as the driver of economic growth, which he says will eventually make India a developed nation. But his home country, Gujarat, once glorified as an economic miracle under his leadership, is one of the Indian the largest sources illegal migration in the United States, according to police officials.

Although Washington views India as an alternative to China in global industrial domination, its uneven economy – according to some measures, is one of the most unimportant in the world – still drives a large number of Indians to take huge risks to reach the United States.

In the Mehsan district in the Gujarat, almost every family has a member in the United States, legally or illegally. Some only return to their aunt and uncle’s annual visits. Mehsana is often in news, with reports of her migrants dying as they tried to climb the border wall to the United States, reach her shores with a boat, or break through the frozen northern border during the winter.

Migration to the United States is a traditional status symbol among the Gujarat. Families who do not have members in the United States have problems with the merger of their children in marriage, said Jagdish, 55, a worker at a local college in the village of Jasalpur, whose son and daughter -in -law are illegally in the United States.

Jagdish, who asked his surname not to be used, said his son spent five months in Mexico waiting to cross the border five years ago. Upon entering the United States, he was in prison for three months before he was released. He now works at a cafe there, and his wife joined him last year.

The family cost more than $ 70,000 to take them to the United States – a mix of “hard -earned money, my life savings” and loans, Jagdish said.

“I don’t buy new clothes, I reduced fruit and milk,” he said. “I have to bring back loans.”

Outside the village temple, husband and wife who run the Subway franchise in the United States, where they live for two decades, have been visited once a year. Husband, Rajanicant Patel, tried to offer a little persuasion about Mr Trump, prone to the atmosphere “No one knows” which is characterized by many stories about a new administration.

“Trump will do what he has to do,” Mr. Patel said. “But Trump needs people who work there. We are workers there. It’s such a huge country. Who will work and manage there? ”

In large numbers, the Indians began moving to the United States in the 1960s, when India was among the poorest nations of the world and an American immigrant policy released.

The attractive force is strong even today, with India, which is now the fifth world economy. Given the enormous inequality, economic growth has not necessarily transformed into better services or higher standard of living for the majority.

“The quality of life here and there cannot be compared,” said Mr. Patel’s wife, Nila Ben.

Immigration consultants said they noticed the fall of visitors because the news was that it became increasingly difficult to enter the United States, which is a pesting that began during the Bide’s administration and, which Mr Trump intends to increase drastically.

Varun Sharma, director of immigration consulting companies, said that about half of his potential clients were inquiring about illegal paths in the United States. He repelled them politely, he said.

Many immigrants without documents are now coming from a new middle class. In some cases, Indians who arrive with a student visa remain after the expiry date. In other cases, migrants first fly to the third country with a visitor visa, and then slowly break through to the United States by land or sea.

Vishnu Bhai Patel, a lemon merchant from a nearby village, said that he hoped Mr. Trump “would show some indulgence to divided families like mine – half the family is here and half there.” He said he hoped that his daughter, who studied engineering in the United States, would be able to stay after graduation and that he would then invite him to come legal.

“My dream is that she never comes back,” he said.

Mujib Mashal contributed to reporting from New Delhi.