The exaggerated numbers of illegal Bangladeshi nationals bandied about by our politicians have been weaponised against Indian Bengali Muslims. This rhetoric is no less shrill than the US president’s

United States citizens take part in a rally and march in support of immigrants on February 1 in Waukegan, Illinois. Pic/AFP

The increasing viciousness of United States President Donald Trump’s war on illegal immigrants is reminiscent of what India has done in the name of prising out those suspected of having sneaked from Bangladesh into India. For decades, Indian Bengali Muslims have been hated, hounded, detained or disenfranchised, and entangled in interminable court cases over their citizenship status.

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This might become the fate of Indians in the US, too, for a crackdown on illegal immigrants invariably demonises the communities to which they belong. As such, Indians have little to fear—there are, after all, only 20,407 Indians in the US who are either in detention, awaiting trial or summary banishment, or have been served orders for removal. 

Periodic estimates have created the perception that illegal Indian immigrants are flooding the US. A Pew Research Centre analysis, for the 2019-2022 period, pegged their population at 7.5 lakh, the third largest by nationality. This figure dipped to 2.2 lakh in the Department of Homeland Security’s estimate of unauthorised Indians living........

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