The trend of children found abandoned at the borders by US authorities has been growing over the past few years. The development comes even as the Donald Trump administration is preparing to further intensify its sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration.
Why Indians Are Abandoning Their Children At US Borders
Why In News
- The trend of children found abandoned at the borders by US authorities has been growing over the past few years. The development comes even as the Donald Trump administration is preparing to further intensify its sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration.
- Indians are among the thousands of parents who leave their children on the Mexico-US or Canada-US borders in the hope of citizenship for the children, and themselves. Over 500 unaccompanied minors from India were apprehended in the US in fiscal year 2024. But now, the Trump administration is coming down heavily on “unaccompanied children” who are left at the US border by their parents.
What Do We Know
- According to a report in The Times of India these children are “strategically abandoned” at the US border with Mexico.
- While in most cases the children are between the ages of 12 and 17, sometimes the children can be as young as six. These unaccompanied minors have nothing on them except a piece of papers with the names and contact information of their parents.
- Economic Times quoted data from the US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) as showing that 77 Indian minors were found at the US border from October 2024 to February 2025.
- Of these 53 were found at the southern border with Mexico, while the rest were apprehended at the US border with Canada. From 2022 to 2025, at least 1,656 unaccompanied Indian minors were found trying to cross into the US.
- The maximum number of children, 730, attempted to do so in FY23. The year 2024 saw 517 children trying to enter the US, while 409 minors tried to so in 2022.
- The year 2021 and 2020 saw 219 and 237 children being arrested at US borders.
Why Is This Happening
- As per NDTV, experts say that this is part of a broader strategy from Indian families to try to gain residence in the US. Some say the parents, who are already in the US illegally, send for the children to try to gain asylum. One person involved with illegal immigration told The Times of India that these kids are essentially ‘green cards’ for their illegal immigrant parents.
- “In most cases, their parents first reach the US illegally and then they send for their children with other illegal immigrants to the US,” the individual said. “When their children are caught at the borders, they seek refuge for the minors and themselves — which they usually get on humanitarian grounds.”
- However it can also work the other way around. “They claim asylum on the grounds that their children are already in the US,” the individual added. Others say the children are sent with adults only for them to be abandoned.
- “These children carry chits in their pockets or bags, which bear the names of their parents and/or guardians. They are then sent to their parents, who may be already living illegally in the US, and given health and education benefits free of cost,” the person added.As per NDTV, some families in Gujarat have copped to using this strategy.
- A couple from Mehsana who moved to the US illegally in 2019 said they sent for their son in the US. “All sources of transport were disrupted because of the pandemic. I told my cousin who was travelling to the US (illegally) in 2022 to bring my child there, who had turned five by then. My cousin did as told and left my son at the border near Texas, where he was spotted by a US security agency officer”, the man was quoted as saying.
- Such cases seem to be occurring more and more in rural Gujarat – particularly in villages such as Jhulasan and Mokasan.
- “I knew they were not going to be in danger. They were with my friends and relatives…and they were ultimately going to be in the custody of US law agencies….We can’t wait till our kids complete their studies in India and then opt for legal ways to enter the US. If they are there already when they are young, they can complete their studies, find a job and earn decent money,” a man from Gujarat told the newspaper.
- “Cops cannot prevent them because they are not doing anything illegal on Indian soil,” an officer from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar told The Times of India. “It is up to the US authorities to take action against the exploitation of children in human smuggling.”
Trump Immigration Crackdown Continues
- As per The Guardian, the Trump administration is now singling out unaccompanied minors for deportation.
- The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly engaging in “welfare checks” on children who arrived in the US alone – mostly across the US-Mexican border.
- The newspaper reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials are looking for unaccompanied immigrant children across the US.
- ICE wants to deport the children or prosecute them or those in the US taking care of them, the newspaper, quoting sources and an Ice document, reported.
- As per NPR, in March a judge in California ordered the government to restore legal aid to tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children in the US.
- This came after the government cancelled a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice – which provides legal representation to unaccompanied migrant children under the age of 18. “The Court additionally finds that the continued funding of legal representation for unaccompanied children promotes efficiency and fairness within the immigration system,” the judge wrote.
