The Undocumented Among Us: What to Know About Cancelation of Some Programs Protecting Individuals From Deportation

President Trump has made the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals a key policy, with the U.S. said to have identified about 18,000 Indian nationals it believes entered illegally.

Unauthorized immigrants make up 3% of the U.S. population and 22% of the foreign-born population.

The number of undocumented Indians among them is contested however, with estimates varying widely due to differing calculation methods.

Pew Research Center and Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) estimate some 700,000 people as of 2022, making them the third-largest group after Mexico and El Salvador.

In contrast, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) puts the figure at 375,000, ranking India fifth among origin countries. 

The official government data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offers yet another picture, reporting 220,000 unauthorized Indians in 2022.

The vast differences in estimates highlight the uncertainty surrounding the true size of the undocumented Indian population, according to the study. 

Yet numbers have dropped from their peak.Indian migrants make up only a small share of the overall unauthorized migrant population in the U.S.

If Pew and CMS estimates are accurate, nearly one in four Indian immigrants in the U.S. is undocumented — an unlikely scenario given migration patterns, the study says. (Indian immigrants are one of the fastest-growing groups in the U.S., surging from 600,000 in 1990 to 3.2 million in 2022.)

The DHS estimated in 2022 that the undocumented Indian population in the U.S, dropped 60% from its 2016 peak, falling from 560,000 to 220,000. However, this estimate doesn’t reflect a 2023 surge in Indians at U.S. borders, meaning the actual number could now be higher.

How many Indians have been deported?

Between 2009 and 2024, around 16,000 Indians were deported, according to India’s ministry of external affairs. 

These deportations averaged 750 per year under President Obama, 1,550 under Trump’s first term, and 900 under Biden.

Indian migrant removals spiked between FY 2023 and 2024, but the peak was in 2020 with nearly 2,300 deportations.

Recent Development for asylum seekers

During the Biden administration, there were large and unexpected immigration flows at the southern border. The surge was dominated by those who lacked regular status but were allowed to enter for humanitarian reasons, including asylum seekers with a credible fear of returning home, participants in humanitarian parole programs for those fleeing from certain countries, and individuals who received temporary parole or a notice to appear in immigration court. The Congressional Budget Office estimated overall net migration of 3.3 million in 2023, including migration of “other foreign nationals” far higher than historical norms.  During 2024, the Biden administration worked with Mexico and other countries to reduce border flows, and it implemented temporary provisions in June 2024 making it more difficult to have asylum claims considered.

Border flows have continued to fall in early 2025, with authorities allowing almost no humanitarian migrants to cross the border, as can be seen in the most recent bars in Figure 2. An important tool for humanitarian migrants to seek entry during the Biden administration was through a newly created CBP app called CBP One. This app enabled asylum-seekers and other humanitarian migrants to make an appointment at a port of entry for consideration of a credible fear claim. The second Trump administration ended the use of the app. In addition to foreclosing new CBP One appointments, approximately 30,000 people saw their existing appointments abruptly canceled, some of whom had made arduous journeys to reach the border. CBP recently released CBP Home, where  “[a]liens can now notify the U.S. Government of their intent to depart the United States.”

If Pew and CMS estimates are accurate, nearly one in four Indian immigrants in the U.S. is undocumented — an unlikely scenario given migration patterns, the study says.

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Trump also shuttered humanitarian programs like the Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV) which had created an orderly, temporary pathway for those leaving Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the U.S. (The administration’s plan to prematurely terminate protection for the approximately 530,000 people who had previously entered the U.S. under CHNV was halted  by the courts in April.)

These changes virtually eliminate all opportunities for immigrants to enter the U.S. seeking asylum. Many observers argue that the asylum system had outstripped its intended use under Biden, exacerbating backlogs in the immigration court system and fueling more border traffic. However, the U.S. does have an obligation under Article 14 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to consider asylum claims. 

Humanitarian migration through the formal international refugee program has also been halted. In January, President Trump issued an Executive Order suspending the refugee program. A circuit court recently ruled that admission should be allowed for the roughly 10,000 people who had already been vetted and had their flights canceled, but the suspension of federal funding supporting refugee integration efforts in the U.S. may make that difficult. The suspension marks a break with a decades-long U.S. commitment to admitting refugees; the U.S. has admitted an average of about 73,000 refugees annually between 1975 and 2024. Despite the moratorium on refugee admissions, the administration has signaled its intent to consider refugee status for white South Africans.

Surreptitious border crossings—also known as “entries without inspection”—are inherently difficult to measure, but these likely declined in 2025 as well. The long-standing staffing challenges in Border Patrol make a rapid expansion of personnel difficult, and instead presence at the southern border has been bolstered by nearly 7,000 military troops and deputized members of state National Guards. The Department of Interior is also transferring about 110,000 acres of border land to the military for a period of three years to strengthen border enforcement. Despite bolstered border enforcement, encounters between agents and migrants between ports of entry have fallen, suggesting fewer attempted crossings.

Alongside the increased enforcement and detention capacity, the administration is taking steps to cancel some programs protecting individuals from deportation. The courts have prevented some of these actions, such as the premature termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several hundred thousand Venezuelans. But as TPS protections and individually issued paroles expire on their expected schedule, many immigrants will lose their temporary status and associated work permits. For example, the administration does not intend to extend TPS for Afghans which is set to expire this May. Some Afghan immigrants who had been granted temporary protection in response to the turmoil of U.S. withdrawal and Taliban rule are in the bureaucratic process of obtaining a more permanent status and will be at risk of deportation.

The administration has defied long-standing practices and laws in its enforcement approach. Here are some examples:

• Revoking sensitive locations guidance, which had previously hindered immigration enforcement activity in sensitive locations like schools, hospitals, and churches.
• Using a broad array of agencies to enforce immigration laws, including by reassigning personnel away from their core functions such as a reported 25% of the Drug Enforcement Agency and 80% of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents. Agency data collected for other purposes is also being newly exploited, including a memorandum of understanding to use Internal Revenue Service data collected when unauthorized immigrants file taxes. Also, about 6,000 immigrants with valid Social Security numbers had their status abruptly revoked and were then recorded in the death file maintained by the Social Security Administration.
• Invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a war power infamously used to justify internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. In March, the act was used to justify deporting alleged gang members to a brutal prison in El Salvador without a court hearing, a case that continues to dominate headlines.
• Revoking visas and arresting certain individuals apparently because of political speech. Examples include pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder; Georgetown international scholar Badan Khan Suri; and Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk. High-profile cases like these chill free speech.
• Requiring registry of all immigrants ages 14 and older who have been in the country more than thirty days, for the stated purpose of facilitating enforcement and encouraging voluntary exits.
• Three reported cases of U.S. citizen children, including one in cancer treatment, being removed from the country when their mothers were deported.

The extraordinary actions of the Trump administration are being contested through the courts with mixed results. Regardless of the legal outcomes, the administration has successfully created a climate of fear among undocumented residents, international students, and even legal permanent residents. This climate has also impacted travel to the U.S., with a reported 12% decline in arrivals from countries other than Canada and Mexico compared to the same time last year.

One area where the administration appears to be failing to meet its enforcement goals is in the number of deportations. Deportation statistics include both people turned away at the border and removals of unauthorized residents from the interior of the U.S. The lull in border activity could lead to fewer deportations, even if more long-standing residents are being deported. The best available evidence indicates that total daily removals remain below Biden-era levels, and the administration is reportedly disappointed by the numbers. However, the Department of Homeland Security has not updated the public data on removals since December, so the actual number of deportations overall and deportations from the interior is unclear.

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Amy Ghosh is a Los Angeles-based Attorney at Law, specializing in Immigration Law, Family Law, and Employment Law, among others. She can be reached at: amygesq@gmail.com