President-elect Donald Trump has promised to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history once he takes office on January 20, 2025. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has compiled a list of around 1.5 million individuals who could face deportation.

There are 18,000 undocumented Indian nationals on the list who are at risk of being deported back to India. This move is part of Trump’s border plan to strengthen immigration enforcement and remove individuals living in the U.S. without legal status.

The data released by the ICE says that in November 2024, 17,940 Indians were included in the 1.5 million individuals on the non-detained docket with final removal orders in the United States.

Furthermore, the Pew Research Center reports that India has approximately 725,000 unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., making it the third-largest group of undocumented immigrants after Mexico and El Salvador.

In October, before the release of this data, the U.S. deported Indian nationals using a chartered flight. The flight, which left on October 22, was arranged in cooperation with the Indian government, as confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Thousands of undocumented Indians in the U.S. are struggling to legalize their status, with many waiting years for approval from ICE. Over the past three years, an average of 90,000 Indians have been apprehended while trying to cross the U.S. border illegally.

The ICE document reveals that Honduras, with 261,651 undocumented immigrants, ranks at the top of the deportation list, followed by Guatemala, Mexico, and El Salvador.

Besides all this, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has labelled India as "uncooperative" due to delays in coordination with U.S. authorities. The document also points out that the U.S. expects foreign governments to take necessary actions to verify the citizenship of individuals believed to be their nationals.

It further specifies that governments should conduct interviews, issue travel documents without delay, and accept the return of their nationals through scheduled commercial or charter flights, in line with ICE and foreign government guidelines.