Indians Deported by the US in 2026
1,076 Indian nationals had been deported from the United States as of early June 2026, according to India’s own Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). That figure runs well below the 3,567 Indians deported across all of 2025 — itself a 15-year record at the time — suggesting 2026’s pace, while still substantial, has not matched the historic surge recorded the year before. These numbers come directly from official Indian government statements to Parliament and press briefings, the most authoritative available source for country-specific deportation totals.
This report compiles the most current, verified statistics on Indian nationals deported by the US for 2026: the confirmed year-to-date and historical totals, how deportation flights are conducted, the broader US enforcement environment driving these numbers, and how India’s deportation figures compare to its much larger legal migration and undocumented population. All figures come from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, statements to the Rajya Sabha, and US government enforcement data from ICE and the TRAC Immigration research clearinghouse.
Key Statistics on Indians Deported by the US
| Statistic | Figure |
|---|---|
| Indians deported, 2026 (as of early June) | 1,076 |
| Indians deported, full-year 2025 (final) | 3,567 — a 15-year record |
| Indians deported, 2025 (as of November 28, partial-year marker) | 3,258 |
| Cumulative Indians deported since 2009 | 18,822 |
| Indians deported, 2022 (for historical comparison) | 733 (ranked 13th among nationalities that year) |
| Share of 2025 deportees returned via commercial flights | 62.3% (2,032 individuals) |
| Share of 2025 deportees returned via ICE/CBP charter flights | 37.6% (1,226 individuals) |
| Estimated Indian undocumented population in the US (2022, Pew) | 725,000 |
| Total ICE removals, all nationalities, FY2026 (Oct 2025-Apr 2026) | 234,236 — up 74% year-over-year |
| India’s rank among US LPR (green card) source countries, 2024 | 3rd largest, 65,500 grants |
| India’s rank among US naturalization source countries, 2024 | 2nd largest, 66,200 new citizens |
Source: Ministry of External Affairs of India, Rajya Sabha and press briefing statements, 2025-2026; TRAC Immigration; ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations statistics; Pew Research Center.
India’s own government has been the most consistent and specific source of country-level deportation data, since US enforcement agencies typically report totals by broad category rather than breaking down every removal by individual nationality in real time. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed the 1,076 figure for 2026 during a press briefing in early June, explicitly contrasting it with the 3,567 total for 2025 — a decline of roughly 70% on an annualized basis if the 2026 pace continues, though a full year of 2026 data is not yet available to confirm whether this slower pace holds through December.
The 2025 total itself marked a genuinely historic milestone. External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha in December 2025 that the 3,258 Indians deported as of November 28 represented the highest number of deportations from the US in 15 years, surpassing every annual figure recorded since 2009. By the time the year closed, that figure had grown to the final 3,567, bringing the cumulative total of Indians deported since 2009 to 18,822 — meaning roughly one in five of all Indian deportations recorded over that 16-year span occurred in 2025 alone.
Year-by-Year Context: How 2025 Became a Record Year
| Year | Indians Deported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 296 | Cited in broader ICE nationality tracking |
| 2018 | 831 | Nearly triple the 2015 figure |
| 2022 | 733 | Ranked 13th among all deported nationalities |
| 2025 (through Nov 28) | 3,258 | Highest in 15 years at that point |
| 2025 (final, full year) | 3,567 | Confirmed record high |
| 2026 (as of early June) | 1,076 | Slower pace than 2025’s record year |
Source: Ministry of External Affairs of India; The World Data, Mass Deportation Statistics in US coverage, citing World Population Review and ICE nationality data.
The jump from a few hundred deportations annually in the 2010s to well over 3,000 in 2025 reflects the broader, dramatic escalation in US immigration enforcement that began in 2025, not a change specific to how India is treated relative to other countries. Deportation tracking that captured India’s numbers alongside other nationalities showed the country’s totals climbing steadily — from 296 in 2015 to 831 in 2018 — even before the 2025 surge, indicating a longer-term upward trend that then accelerated sharply alongside the broader US enforcement expansion documented across nearly every nationality in 2025 and 2026.
Even at 2025’s record pace, Indian deportations remained a small fraction of overall US removals. With 234,236 total ICE removals recorded in just the first six months of FY2026 across all nationalities, India’s roughly 1,000-plus deportees represent well under 1% of the total enforcement volume during a comparable period — consistent with India’s historical ranking outside the top ten deported nationalities, well behind Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which together account for the overwhelming majority of all US deportations.
How Deportation Flights to India Are Conducted
| Metric | 2025 Figure |
|---|---|
| Total deportees returned via commercial flights | 2,032 (62.3%) |
| Total deportees returned via ICE/CBP charter flights | 1,226 (37.6%) |
| Primary concern raised by India regarding charter flights | Use of shackling during transport |
| Indian government’s stated position | Repeatedly raised “inhumane treatment” concerns with US authorities |
| Nationality verification process | Each individual’s nationality confirmed before repatriation |
Source: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Rajya Sabha statement, December 2025.
Nearly two-thirds of Indian deportees in 2025 returned via standard commercial flights, a routing that generally involves less restrictive transport conditions than the dedicated ICE or Customs and Border Protection charter flights used for the remaining 37.6% of deportees. It’s specifically this charter-flight category that has drawn sustained diplomatic attention: Minister Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha that the Ministry of External Affairs has repeatedly raised the issue of “inhumane” treatment of deportees with US authorities, singling out the use of shackles during charter flight transport as a specific point of concern.
India has maintained that its cooperation with US deportation requests is contingent on verified nationality, with government statements consistently emphasizing that each individual’s Indian citizenship is confirmed before repatriation proceeds — a standard practice reflecting India’s stated position that it supports removing individuals who are confirmed to have entered the US illegally or overstayed visas, while simultaneously pushing back on the specific manner in which some removals have been carried out.
The Broader US Enforcement Environment Driving These Numbers
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| FY2026 total ICE removals (Oct 2025-Apr 2026, all nationalities) | 234,236 — up 74% vs. same period in FY2025 |
| FY2026 projected full-year total removals (all nationalities) | ~460,000 |
| FY2025 full-year total removals (all nationalities) | 319,980 |
| Share of FY2026 detention population growth from non-criminal individuals | 92% |
| New ICE law enforcement officers hired, 2025-2026 | 12,000 |
| ICE detention population, record single-day peak (January 2026) | 70,766+ |
Source: TRAC Immigration; Deportation Data Project; ICE ERO statistics, 2025-2026.
India’s 2025 deportation surge occurred within the context of the single sharpest acceleration in US immigration enforcement history, not as an isolated, India-specific policy shift. Total US removals across all nationalities reached 234,236 in just the first six months of FY2026, a 74% increase over the same period a year earlier, with the full fiscal year on pace to reach an estimated 460,000 removals — a figure that would exceed FY2025’s already-record 319,980 by roughly 45%. This surge has been powered by a 12,000-officer expansion of ICE’s enforcement workforce and a record detention population that crossed 70,000 people for the first time in January 2026.
A notable share of this broader enforcement wave has targeted individuals with no criminal record, a pattern that applies across nationalities rather than being unique to Indian deportees specifically — TRAC’s analysis found 92% of the growth in ICE’s detained population between September 2025 and January 2026 came from people with no criminal charges or convictions. For deeper detail on how this detention surge has unfolded nationally, including facility-by-facility and state-by-state breakdowns, see our ICE Detention Facilities Statistics coverage.
Recent Enforcement Actions Involving Indian Nationals
| Case | Detail |
|---|---|
| Parminderpal Singh arrest | 26-year-old Indian national arrested by ICE Los Angeles on May 21, 2026 |
| Charges | Vehicle theft and vandalism, among other offenses |
| MEA response context | Cited alongside the June 2026 briefing confirming the 1,076 deportation figure |
| Government position | India continues coordinating with US authorities on verified deportation cases while raising concerns over treatment |
Source: Ministry of External Affairs press briefing, June 2026.
High-profile individual enforcement actions continue to shape the public conversation around Indian deportations, even though they represent a small fraction of the overall numbers. The arrest of 26-year-old Parminderpal Singh by ICE Los Angeles on May 21, 2026, on charges including vehicle theft and vandalism, was specifically referenced by India’s MEA during the same briefing that confirmed the year’s deportation total — illustrating how individual criminal cases and aggregate deportation statistics are frequently discussed together in official Indian government communications on this topic, even though the vast majority of deportees, in India’s case and nationally, are removed for immigration status violations rather than criminal convictions.
Indian Deportations in the Context of Legal Migration
| Metric | Figure (2024, Latest Available) |
|---|---|
| Indian nationals granted US lawful permanent residency (green cards) | 65,500 — 3rd largest source country |
| Indian nationals naturalized as US citizens | 66,200 — 2nd largest source country |
| Indian international students in the US | ~295,000 — overtook China as the largest source country** |
| Estimated Indian undocumented population (Pew, 2022) | 725,000 |
| 2022 Indian deportations relative to estimated undocumented population | 733 — well under 0.1% |
Source: The World Data, US Immigration Statistics by Year coverage; Pew Research Center, 2022 undocumented population estimates.
Deportation numbers tell only a small part of the US-India migration relationship. India ranks as the third-largest source of new US green card holders and the second-largest source of new naturalized citizens as of the most recent 2024 data, and Indian students overtook China in 2023-2024 to become the single largest international student population in US universities, at roughly 295,000. Set against Pew Research Center’s 2022 estimate of 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, that same year’s 733 deportations represented well under one-tenth of one percent of the estimated undocumented population — underscoring that even amid 2025’s record enforcement year, formal deportation remains a comparatively small mechanism relative to the size of the broader undocumented Indian population, a pattern broadly consistent with the low historical deportation rates researchers have documented for Indian and other Asian-origin undocumented populations relative to their Latin American counterparts. For the complete year-by-year breakdown of how US immigration categories have shifted for India and other nationalities, see our US Immigration Statistics by Year coverage, and for the fullest picture of how these individual-country figures fit into America’s overall deportation enforcement surge, see our Mass Deportation Statistics in US coverage.
Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.