Editorial: Wake up and smell the decaf

The manner in which the Trump administration chose to deport the 104 Indian illegal immigrants from the US reminded many of the images from our historical textbooks and documentaries, which highlighted the exodus of Jews from Eastern Europe during World War II. Photographs shot during the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto in Poland, told the story of a people destined for the gas chambers. Here, they were being returned from a promised land back to their home countries, with not a penny to their names, shackled, forced to consume food with hands bound, and thrust back into hard reality with an uncertain future ahead of them.

Indians also had to put up with the indignation of the external affairs ministry defending the US's decision, while nonchalantly stating that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities were only following standard operating procedure while using restraints on the passengers (except for women and children). Trump's brash gesture is obviously a rebuke to India's ego as our leadership at the Centre has been overly optimistic about 'sunny days' in the aftermath of the billionaire's second innings at the White House. Things have obviously taken a dark turn considering there are about 7.25 lakh undocumented/illegal Indian immigrants in the US, who are part of the 14 million illegal immigrants residing in America (per 2024 figures), who will now come under the ICE's scanner. The US currently has a list of 1.5 mn foreigners who are set to be deported, of which 18,000 are Indians. Of course, the mathematics of deporting so many immigrants back to their countries is an altogether different ball game.

For starters, even if the US managed to deport as many as 3,000 immigrants per day, it would take nothing less than 10 years to deport all the undocumented immigrants currently in the US. There's also the cost of deportation per immigrant. Estimates revealed that it took $4,675 per migrant on a military deportation flight to Guatemala last week. Transporting just 5,000 illegal aliens would set the US back by $23 million. Experts have also pointed out that striking off close to 10 mn people off the American workforce would be a sure shot recipe to send the US economy into a tailspin. Needless to say, all this huffing and puffing employed by Trump and Co qualifies as optics to please the MAGA brigade, a hurried gambit to assure his loyalists that his crack team is hard at work to keep the promises made during the elections. It’s also a deflection mechanism aimed at taking attention away from the actual inefficiencies of the government and the deep-rooted problems plaguing America’s deeply flawed immigration system.

The arrival of the deportees holds valuable lessons for India. For one, it should make our leadership sit up and take note of why millions are willing to risk life and limb to escape the promising idea of Viksit Bharat, only to migrate to the US, even if they get treated as second class citizens. Employment generation has not been commensurate with economic growth. And the annual sops announced in budgets are doing little to address this mammoth in the boardroom. The sooner we mitigate this phenomenon of opportunities lost to the first world, the closer we will be in stemming this exodus and the entailing human tragedies.