Last week, Venkata Vasamsetty, a long-term US green card holder, was arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), three months after a judge dismissed efforts to remove her from the country. Vasamsetty, who's been a lawful permanent resident in the US since 2013, hasn't committed any crime, as is the case with most victims of ICE. The agency wants to remove her because she stayed in India for a few months in 2022 to visit her ailing father, and later contracted Covid. ICE accuses her of abandoning her permanent residency, a charge she denies. Two weeks earlier, the agency arrested another US resident, Pritesh Walia, a jazz musician. He has now been released on bond. Vasamsetty is also hoping to be freed on bond. But this is not the end of their troubles. The threat of deportation remains.
Vasamsetty and Walia are among the growing number of Indians affected by ICE's operations, part of US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. The US has deported more than 4,800 Indian nationals since Trump took office. As many as 1,273 have been deported already in the first half of this year, and 3,567 were sent back last year, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Last year's figures were the highest in 16 years, but this year's total could be even more. Nationally, ICE arrested 51,000 people in July, a new monthly record. Trump has set a record of 2,000 arrests a day. According to Markwayne Mullin, Secretary of US Homeland Security, ICE made an average of 4,200 arrests in the first week of August. So, many more Indians could be arrested and deported in the rest of this year.
Indians Are The Most Targeted Group
Although the largest number of arrests and deportations by the US involve nationals of Latin American and Caribbean countries, Indians now top such lists among Asians, according to Stop AAPI Hate, an American NGO that tracks and analyses data on Asian and Pacific Island nations and campaigns against ICE. Between January 2025 and March 2026, almost 28% of the 14,402 Asians arrested were Indians. During the same period, 6,218 Asians were deported; Indians again occupied the top spot, with a 28% share of removals. Stop AAPI Hate told this author that in their analysis of the latest data, which they have not yet released, they found that "Indian people remain the most targeted by ICE, with the highest number of arrests, detentions, and deportations out of all A/PIs (Asian and Pacific Islanders)".
Indians are the third-largest foreign-born group in the United States, after Mexicans and Chinese, and there have been numerous cases of immigration and ID fraud involving them. Earlier this month, US authorities filed a case to revoke the American citizenship of India-born Harinder Singh after it was found that he had used a false identity and concealed his earlier immigration history. However, the growing targeting of Indians by US immigration officials is not due to a surge in such cases. "A broader trend we also see is that the growth of the Indian population in the US, as well as the growing prominence of Indian leaders in politics, business, etc., has spurred a hateful backlash that is being further fuelled by bigoted policies and rhetoric under the Trump administration," says Stop AAPI Hate.
How ICE Became Trump's Most Feared Arm
ICE was formed as part of the US Homeland Security Act of 2002, a response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001. But the agency has never been as controversial as it has been since Trump began his second term as president 18 months ago. Mass deportation was Trump's main election promise, and his administration has granted ICE unprecedented powers and near-impunity to carry out immigration crackdowns and deportations. ICE agents can stop, detain, and arrest people they suspect of being in the US illegally, which is a civil offence. But since last year, they have frequently been accused of overstepping their powers and acting as if they were pursuing hardened criminals.
ICE officers have kidnapped people, broken into cars to arrest suspects, and deported people even in violation of court orders. They have also used tear gas, pepper spray, and live bullets on non-violent protesters. At least six people, including three US citizens, have been shot dead by immigration officers since Trump came to office. Fifty-seven people have died in ICE custody since then, according to the NGO National Immigration Project. Thirty-three died last year, the highest in over two decades. This year, 24 deaths have already been reported, and the total for the year is expected to be even worse.
In January, protests against ICE spread nationwide after a 37-year-old US citizen, Renee Nicole Good, was shot dead by its officers in Minneapolis. A day after her killing, Vice President JD Vance declared that the agent who shot Good "is protected by absolute immunity". Later that month, another US citizen, Alex Pretti, was killed by Border Patrol, an immigration agency that works alongside ICE. The authorities have not arrested or charged anyone for the killings, despite national outrage.
Electric Shock Gloves
Last week, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it planned to purchase special gloves for ICE officers that can deliver electric shocks. Produced by the US firm Compliant Technologies, the gloves haven't even been adopted properly by police forces in the country. They deliver low-voltage electric shocks on contact. The company says the technology in the gloves can inhibit "the subject from performing coordinated muscle movement". The news has alarmed human rights activists and some former officials of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement department.
But the Trump administration is happy to proceed with such measures in an attempt to meet its goal of reducing immigration to a bare minimum and deporting all those it deems illegal. Trump's deportation target has been one million each year. However, ICE's own figures show only 4 lakh people were deported in 2025. This has made many hard-core Trump supporters unhappy, but officials claim many more have left the US voluntarily. The DHS told The Atlantic in a statement that "more than 3 million illegal aliens have left the US because of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal migration, including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations". These are staggering numbers, if true.
In recent weeks, ICE has widened its net, arresting more suspects. As we have seen in the case of Indian national Venkata Vasamsetty's arrest, ICE's actions now include arresting people over allegations of green card violations or other legal issues, such as asylum applications or expired visas. Earlier, most arrests involved people who had pending final deportation orders. Last month, there were several incidents in which ICE officers boarded an aircraft to arrest a suspect. Airlines are unhappy because such incidents upset other passengers. But perhaps this is what Trump and his team want: a public display of immigration officers' tough approach.
Trump-Loving Courts
Last September, the US Supreme Court's Republican-appointed majority allowed ICE agents to stop people and question them about their immigration status based solely on race and ethnicity, or even on whether they speak English with an accent. This means ICE agents can decide who to stop and detain for questioning, a practice that lower-court judges had earlier found unconstitutional. This alarmed human rights groups and activists in the country.
The Trump administration has also succeeded in transforming immigration courts from independent arbiters of the law into parts of a deportation machine. According to lawyers representing ICE victims, immigration judges often work in concert with government agents and attorneys to remove as many people from the US as quickly as possible. These courts are not really independent, as they come under the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the agency responsible for overseeing the country's immigration courts. They have issued more than 9.6 lakh deportation orders since Trump returned to office. Half of those orders were issued in three states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. In New Jersey, where many Indians live, deportations and voluntary departures have risen by 280% since January 2025.
But most Federal judges are not following the Trump administration's line, which is a ray of hope for the victims. Many have come to immigrants' aid, ordering their release from ICE's custody after hearing their habeas petitions, a growing trend. In the past year, these judges have ruled against ICE's detention tactics more than 17,300 times, according to a Politico investigation. The flood of cases has stretched the judiciary to a breaking point across the country. One District Judge, Fred Biery, told the magazine that his courthouse typically handles about 1,500 lawsuits a year but had already reached roughly 4,000 cases by May this year.
A Self-Goal For America
Trump can take credit for his immigration crackdown, which saw border crossings drop to a 55-year low last year. Every country has the right to control its borders and to oppose illegal immigration. But his policy has also targeted legal migrants, including Indians. His imposition of a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications, plans to eliminate the 60-day grace period for such visa holders after their employment ends, and tighter visa rules for Indian students will hurt the United States. A new analysis by NAFSA: Association of International Educators and JB International has found that the US economy could lose USD 3.4 billion and nearly 40,000 jobs because of an estimated 111,000 fewer international students. Application submissions from India have declined by 14% for the year 2026-27, according to NAFSA.
For decades, Indian students have been drawn to US educational institutions, producing some of the country's top business leaders and scientists. Thanks to Trump's policies, that is changing. Another recent report by ICEF Monitor, an education market agency, said that 59% of US higher education institutions received fewer international applications this year, and 63% expect a decline in 2026-27. "The most pronounced decreases are reported for India, with only 39% of institutions indicating stable or increased application numbers," the ICEF report said. Nearly all respondents (92%) cited visa issues, such as processing delays or rising rejection rates, as the most significant factor affecting this year's enrolment outlook, the report added. This suggests Indian students are considering other options. The question is, does Trump care?
(Naresh Kaushik is a former editor at the BBC and Associated Press. He is based in London)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
