Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday held a telephonic conversation with Donald Trump, a week after his second inauguration as US President, sources familiar with the matter told NDTV.
Soon after Trump assumed office, PM Modi congratulated his “dear friend”, saying he wanted New Delhi and Washington to work closely together.
Trump began his second term last Monday with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling US immigration, and the H1-B visas that allow companies to bring foreigners with specific qualifications to the United States.
India is among the largest sources of legal migration into the United States, but tens of thousands of Indians have also entered the country illegally in recent years by crossing the Canadian and Mexican borders.
India is prepared to take back its citizens residing illegally in the United States, foreign minister S Jaishankar has said after meeting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Tuesday, a day after Trump’s inauguration.
“We want Indian talent and Indian skills to have the maximum opportunity at the global level. At the same time, we are also very firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration,” Mr Jaishankar said on Wednesday responding to a query on news reports that India was working with the Trump administration on the deportation of around 18,000 Indians who are either undocumented, or have overstayed their visas.
“So, with every country, and the US is no exception, we have always taken the view that if any of our citizens are here illegally, and if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been open to their legitimate return to India,” he said.
Mr Rubio had “emphasized the Trump administration’s desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a readout after Tuesday’s meeting.
The most recent US census showed its Indian-origin population had grown by 50 per cent to 4.8 million in the decade to 2020, while more than a third of the nearly 1.3 million Indian students studying abroad in 2022 were in the United States.
