What's behind the rise in undocumented Indian immigrants crossing U.S. borders on foot
NBCNov 14, 2023
A Legend Airlines flight carrying 276 Indian nationals landed in Mumbai early on Tuesday after being grounded for four days in France over human trafficking and undocumented immigration concerns.
Upon arrival at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, the passengers — mostly men — were reportedly interrogated by officials from the Immigration Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Decades-long visa backlogs for would-be immigrants who want to join their families in the US, as well as worsening conditions for minorities in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have forced Indian nationals into the hands of smugglers disguised as travel agents. To address this recent spike, the US must overhaul its immigration laws and push India to enact significant reform.
The Biden administration's policies have failed to end the border crisis as they were based on a faulty premise that opening new pathways for migrants to cross in an orderly, legal fashion would reduce illegal immigration. The only historically proven way to solve this issue is to stop letting illegal migrants stay in the country — a move that discourages them from heading to the US in the first place.
There's a 50% chance that India will become a World Bank high-income country by November 2049, according to the Metaculus prediction community.