Opinion by Editorial
The images of deportations are troubling. They point to larger issues and predicaments
In India, the deportation has evidently provided fodder for an Opposition that, since the general election last year, has struggled to find the language to talk to the government and to hold it to account.
Feb 8, 2025 07:07 IST First published on: Feb 8, 2025 at 07:06 IST
The deportation of illegal migrants from the US, including from India, is not new. Data shows that hundreds of people have been sent back to India for being in the US illegally every year. It is this context that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar sought to lay out in Parliament on Thursday. His task, however, was an unenviable one. In the current political moment, in both India and the US, foreign policy is coming under new pressures and is being asked to submit to the tests of a performative patriotism. The images of 104 Indians being flown back on a US military aircraft, restrained and shackled, are disturbing. But they must be seen in context.
While sympathy for the deportees is understandable, their stories speak to the larger inequality between and within countries, which requires wider conversations, not political point-scoring. No nation-state allows free-for-all citizenship and illegal immigration has been one of the main issues in US politics for at least three decades. It is also an issue that Donald Trump has been especially vocal about on the campaign trail, arguably with racist overtones. The spectacle around the deportations earlier this week can be explained by the Trump administration’s desire to address and appease its political base. That said, similar deportations were undertaken during earlier administrations — both Democratic and Republican. The restraining of passengers has been a part of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) procedure since November 19, 2012. While such measures may be cause for concern, migration is only one among several issues between India and the US at a time of churn in international relations, including around growing protectionism and talk of tariffs and trade barriers.
Story continues below this ad
In India, the deportation has evidently provided fodder for an Opposition that, since the general election last year, has struggled to find the language to talk to the government and to hold it to account. Partisan politics, however, fails to address the broader issues that this episode is a symptom of. Across Western democracies, liberal politics has failed to adequately counter an anti-immigrant sentiment that, too often, fails to distinguish between legal migration and illegal border crossings, and often conflates asylum seekers and refugees with “criminals”, amid growing insecurities about the fraying social fabric of host countries. These issues do not have easy answers. Unfortunately, few are even asking the right questions.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
