Visa curbs on Indian travel agencies facilitating illegal immigration to US

The US Department of State is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on owners, executives, and senior officials of travel agencies based and operating in India for knowingly facilitating illegal immigration to the United States.  Mission India’s Consular Affairs and Diplomatic Security Service work every day across our Embassy and Consulates to actively identify and target those engaged in facilitating illegal immigration and human smuggling and trafficking operations. This action was announced in a statement by Tammy Bruce, the US State Department spokesperson. She shared no details of the number of identities of people and entities that had been slapped with these restrictions.
Our immigration policy aims not only to inform foreign nationals about the dangers of illegal immigration to the United States but also to hold accountable individuals who violate our laws, including facilitators of illegal immigration, she said. It said this visa restriction policy is global and even applies to individuals who otherwise qualify for the Visa Waiver Programme. Illegal immigration has been identified by the American right as the primary reason for the poor law-and-order situation in the country.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs has said that since President Donald Trump took office in January, the US has deported 682 Indians who were in the country. These could include both people who entered the US illegally or those who entered legally but overstayed their visa duration. Indian officials have told their American interlocutors that India is ready to take back immigrants who have entered the US illegally. This is a low-cost give for New Delhi — its priority is to ensure that the 20,000 illegal immigrants who are set to be deported as part of Trump’s mass deportation plans do not constrict any legal channels for Indians to travel to the US.