Narendra Modi is set to visit Donald Trump as early as next week after India reportedly began taking back illegal immigrants deported by the US.
The Indian prime minister spoke with Mr Trump on the phone after his inauguration as the US president last month. After the 27 January call, Mr Trump said Mr Modi was “going to be coming to the White House in the next month, probably in February”.
Mr Modi would be among the first world leaders to meet the new president. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first foreign leader to meet Mr Trump at the White House on Tuesday.
The Trump administration began deporting illegal migrants from India on Tuesday as part of a wider crackdown on illegal immigrants in the country. An unnamed US official told Reuters that an American military plane had departed for India with migrants but would not arrive for at least 24 hours.
As part of his escalating crackdown on illegal immigration, which fulfils a key campaign promise, Mr Trump has closed the asylum system to people lacking proper documentation, assigned the military to deport immigration violators, and given deportation officers authority to target the majority of unauthorised immigrants, even those without criminal records.
The Pentagon said last week that US military planes were flying out about 5,000 immigrants held in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California. So far, military aircraft have flown migrants back to Guatemala, Peru and Honduras.
The Indian government has indicated a willingness to cooperate with the Trump administration in identifying and repatriating its citizens who are living illegally in the US in a bid to avoid a diplomatic or trade war with Washington. They have already identified 18,000 such people, sources told Bloomberg.
The Pew Research Center estimates there are around 725,000 undocumented Indian migrants in the US, making them the third-largest group of illegal immigrants in the country after those from Mexico and El Salvador. A 2022 Department of Homeland Security report said around 220,000 Indians were living in the US without authorisation.
Mr Modi’s impending visit comes amid mounting concern in New Delhi over a potential trade war with the new US administration. Mr Trump has repeatedly singled out India for criticism over high tariffs, claiming they harm American businesses, and pledged to impose reciprocal duties on goods from the South Asian country.
“If they tax us, we tax them the same amount,” the president said in an interview on Fox News. “They tax us. We tax them. And they tax us almost in all cases and we haven’t been taxing them.”
Mr Trump also threatened to slap a 100 per cent import tariff on countries in the Brics bloc, of which India is a founding member, if they attempted to replace the American dollar for international trade.
Mr Modi shared a warm relationship with Mr Trump during his first term from 2016 to 2020 with the two leaders appearing together at large public rallies in Ahmedabad and Houston, respectively. Trade issues aside, Mr Modi’s ruling BJP has talked up Mr Trump’s November victory as being good news for bilateral ties.
India’s relationship with the US continued to deepen during the Joe Biden administration despite Washington accusing Mr Modi’s government of plotting the attempted assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in America and friction over New Delhi’s refusal to sever ties with Russia over the Ukraine war.
The US sees India as a counterbalance to a rapidly rising China in Asia and the two nations are part of the Quad grouping with Australia and Japan.
