Washington: Illegal immigration from India to the United States declined sharply, with US border authorities recording 20,614 encounters with Indian migrants through May of fiscal year 2026, down 69% from the same period through May of fiscal year 2023, when illegal immigration from India peaked at more than 67,000 encounters.
An HT analysis of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows that illegal crossings at the US land border have declined significantly. Encounters with Indian migrants trying to cross Mexico’s southwestern border have decreased by 99%, while encounters along the northern border with Canada have decreased by 91%.
What the data reveals
CBP tracks data from October to September, the US government’s fiscal year. Between October 2025 and May 2026, it recorded 20,614 encounters with Indian immigrants nationwide, down from about 29,000 during the same period in fiscal year 2025. At its peak during a similar 8-month period between October and May in fiscal year 2023, encounters involving Indian immigrants rose to 67,212.
The nearly 70% decline from the fiscal year 2023 peak is largely attributable to the Trump administration’s tougher immigration policies. Its refusal to grant asylum to migrants arriving at the US border was a major factor behind the decline, according to Gilbert Guerra of the Niskanen Center.
“I think what we’ve seen is that making it so that people don’t actually have a chance of a good outcome if they come here through these channels has an impact because these journeys are expensive,” Guerra says of illegal immigrants from India. “They’re not journeys that people can try over and over again the way they could try if they were from Guatemala, for example, and they can easily try if they fail first. There’s a lot of money that has to be invested in order to achieve an outcome.”
The steepest declines were along the US land border. Just 417 encounters with Indian migrants were recorded on the southwest border during May of fiscal year 2026, a significant decline of nearly 99% from 30,109 during the same period of fiscal year 2023. Along the northern border, authorities recorded 2,250 encounters, down 91% from the same period in fiscal year 2024. Crossings along the northern border are still relatively higher because Canada — unlike Mexico — has a large Indian community, which It makes it a more attractive transit point for migrants.
Despite this decline, Guerra expects irregular migration from India to remain higher than that from countries such as Russia and China.
