How Indians Are Using Their Children For Illegal Entry In US

A disturbing trend has emerged at the US borders with Mexico and Canada, where young Indian children, often no older than six, are being found alone and frightened, without documents or guardians. These children carry a small piece of paper with their parents' names and contact details, highlighting the growing phenomenon of unaccompanied Indian minors attempting to enter the US illegally.

According to US Customs and Border Protection data, between October 2024 and February 2025, 77 unaccompanied Indian minors were apprehended at the US borders. The majority were found at the southern land border with Mexico, while a significant number crossed from Canada, braving harsh weather conditions, per a Times Of India report. This trend is part of a larger pattern, with 1,656 unaccompanied Indian minors apprehended between 2022 and 2025.

Immigration experts suggest that these children are being used as part of a broader strategy by families to secure residence in the US. In some cases, parents send their children ahead, using their presence as a reason to apply for asylum later. Others claim that the children are sent with groups of adults, only to be abandoned near border checkpoints, where they are picked up by authorities and eventually reunited with their parents.

A person associated with illegal immigration told TOI, that kids act as ‘green cards' for their parents, who are illegal immigrants, "In most cases, their parents first reach the US illegally and then they send for their children with other illegal immigrants to the US," he said. "When their children are caught at the borders, they seek refuge for the minors and themselves — which they usually get on humanitarian grounds."

The use of children in this way has raised concerns about exploitation and human trafficking. Sources indicate that some families in Gujarat have admitted to following this route, with one couple, from Kadi in Mehsana, where the father, a lawyer, shared how he and his wife sent their two-year-old son to join them in the US after moving there illegally in 2019. The child was eventually reunited with his parents after being spotted by US security agency officers near the Texas border.

"All sources of transport were disrupted because of the pandemic. I told my cousin who was travelling to the US (illegally) in 2022 to bring my child there, who had turned five by then. My cousin did as told and left my son at the border near Texas, where he was spotted by a US security agency officer”, the father said.

The trend appears to be particularly prevalent in rural Gujarat, with villages like Jhulasan and Mokasan seeing a noticeable uptick in minors being sent to the US. While US immigration policy shifts may impact this trend, the flow of unaccompanied minors has not stopped, with children continuing to make the perilous journey to the US border, often with nothing but a handwritten note as their only link to family.