Sept. 11, 2007, 12:47PM
Illegal immigrants from India on the rise
Experts say many come to U.S. legally, overstay visas

By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

The fastest-growing group of illegal immigrants in the United States
doesn't speak Spanish. They typically aren't found at day labor sites
or streaming across the Southwest border into the U.S.

Instead, they're here in America working in tech companies, small
businesses, as engineers or other highly skilled jobs. And they're
coming from India.

The profile of the illegal immigrant may need to take on a slightly
more South Asian persona since a recent federal report revealed that
India had the greatest percentage increase in unauthorized immigrants
in the U.S. since 2000.

Illegal immigrants from India grew to 270,000 in 2006 from 120,000 in
2000, a 125 percent increase, according to a report late last month
from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Undocumented Indians, however, remain a small segment of the total
estimated population of 11.6 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Mexico tops the list with 6.6 million - up from 4.7 million in 2000 -
followed by El Salvador and Guatemala, according to the Homeland
Security report.

Locally, this trend is especially relevant since Indians make up one
of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in Harris County, with 35,971
counted in the 2000 Census. They also represent a highly visible and
influential immigrant community. The Houston area has 6,629 businesses
owned by Indian-Americans, according to the most recent Census Bureau
data.

Experts say illegal Indian immigrants are coming here legally on visas
but are overextending their stays and subsequently slipping under the
radar screen of authorities.

'The system is broken'

Immigration lawyer Bruce Coane said Indians have replaced Mexicans as
the largest group of clients at his Houston practice. He estimates
that more than 1,000 Indians in the Houston area do not have legal
status to remain here.

''The numbers are large because there are just so many coming to the
United States, and almost all of them are coming legally," said Coane,
referring to the undocumented population. ''And over time, they fall
out of legal status."

The most recent government data showed that in fiscal year 2005,
Indians received 194,611 temporary work visas to come to the U.S., the
most of any nation. India eclipsed Mexico, which had 169,786 of its
workers admitted, and the United Kingdom with 156,635.

Coane and other immigration attorneys stressed that most Indian
immigrants come here legally to work, go to school, visit as tourists
or conduct business.

''In most cases, they're trying to do everything the right way, but
because the system is broken, they fall out of status," said Coane,
referring to lengthy waits to become a permanent resident.

More than half of Indian immigrants who came to the U.S. in fiscal
year 2005 - about 102,000 - arrived on the H-1B visa for the highly
skilled. So, typically, they aren't going to be busted by immigration
agents during raids at meat-processing plants such as those owned by
Swift & Co., the site of high-profile investigations last year.

''We have not come across many illegal Indian immigrants in Houston,"
said Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement office in Houston. ''Most are Mexicans, South and
Central Americans, and some Chinese."

Lax federal oversight cited

There is debate in the Indian community about why immigrants become
illegal, and just how many reside in Houston.

''My knowledge tells me that most of the Indians we interact with are
highly educated - doctors, engineers and business owners," said Jagdip
Ahluwalia, director of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. ''I
personally have not run into any undocumented Indians here, and I've
lived here for many years."

Faisal Amin, board member of the South Asian Chamber of Commerce in
Houston, said lax oversight of the federal guest workers program is
one reason many Indians stay here when their visas expire.

''We see an increase simply because a lot of those workers are coming
in on H1-B visas," Amin said. "And, we don't have a good way to track
that these workers are, indeed, going back to their countries when
they're finished."

One U.S. Department of Homeland Security official, who asked not be be
identified, agreed there isn't a method to keep tabs on guest workers.

''Once they get in, there's no exit program in place yet - they're
talking about it," the official said.

A dozen years ago, India native Ravinder Kour came to Houston with her
husband on a tourist visa. They found opportunity and stayed after
their visas expired, which turned them into illegal residents.
Meanwhile, they were raising two children who were born here.

But now Kour, a 39-year-old housewife, and her husband are hoping to
regain their legal status with the help of an immigration attorney.

''There are no jobs" in India, said Kour. ''That's why so many Indian
people are coming here."

Bad advice, bad situation

After arriving in Houston the couple decided to try to remain legally.
They were advised by an immigration lawyer to make a claim for
political asylum, which was rejected, and the couple was ordered
deported after not attending a hearing, said attorney Gordon Quan.

''They weren't trying to cheat anyone; they got bad advice," Quan
said.

Kour is being assisted by her brother-in-law, Surinder Singh, 47, who
also came to Houston on a tourist visa. He lived the life of an
illegal immigrant until becoming a citizen in 2003.

''We can't fly, if you want to go somewhere, you have to go by car,"
Singh said. ''If you do something bad, and don't have papers, you will
be in trouble."

The Houston housewife said she constantly worries about immigration
problems.

"It's a big, big depression," Kour said.

Quan, her attorney, noted the federal government assigns a quota of
immigrant visas to each country, and with so many Indians here on
temporary work and other visas, the demand outstrips the supply.

''It's not first-come, first-serve," Quan said. ''A certain percentage
is given to each country. Since there are so many Indians that are
skilled, and being sponsored by employers, their backlog is longer
than other countries."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5124255.html

This article is so ridiculous. It shows nothing more than Xenophobic tendencies. Indian Illegal immigration population grew from 120K in 2000 to 270K in 2006. That's over 6 YEARS, but of course the number 125% increase makes it seem like Indians are taking over this country!

Very lame article.

I love Indian people, they are so nice and friendly.

I agree this article is ridiculous. Do they know how many illegals from Mexico tries to attempt to cross the US southern border?
About 3000 to 8000 alone.............a day! And at least half makes it over. Wow big fuking deal, after 6 years, the number grew from 120000 to 270000 Indians. The media is getting $hittier everyday.

It's a weak article, using percentage ratio to hype it up

It's wrong too. The estimates for Chinese illegals coming into the US each year has been firmly around 100,000 to 120,000 since 1994.

Edit: Well, it's actually right if you narrowly look at the rate of growth. But that would be missing the point entirely compared to Chinese illegals, and of course Mexican illegals, which probably number more like 20 million. Over 1 million illegals in the US are also white, from Canada and Europe--but whites like Lou Dobbs don't fret over them.

This is why, despite agreeing with Lou Dobbs on the issue of illegal immigration, I know he's a racist, for he never mentions white illegals. He just laments like Chicken-Little over Mexicans and a little bit with Chinese.

Depends which Indian people you are refering to.

Remember their are Hindus, Muslims etc...

I'm not a big fan of Muslims and their weird standard of living, but Hindus, Punjabs are cool in my book.

Lou Dobbs is a bona fide racist bastard who hides behind free speech!

I always thought it would be Mexican are the fastest growing illegal immigrants in the US???.

It is, this article is false and deceptive. 1 million illegal immigrants from Mexico every year.

The Mexicans are being Exploited in a very Bad Way in the US.

The next time that you came across a construction site......Take a good look @ those workers...........Simple Safety

Equipments are RARELY Issued to these guys. They used fake or 'borrowed' Social Security Numbers.....and since they

can't collect the SS contributions = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ rolling into the US Treasury.

They are building Condos right across my place.................for 5 weeks, I watched these mex. working; I didn't see a

single Hard-Hat on them...................Those condos are very nice...................Some yanks or Jews are going to be

making lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

How are they being exploited? They voluntarily come to this country and they're more than eager to be doing the jobs that they do, for the wages they receive, under the conditions they work in.

They're by far the largest, but apparently not the fastest. But Keep in mind, they're were barely any illegal Indians in this country say 10 years ago. So any growth is going to be a huge in increase percentage wise. Considering there are like 10-15 million illegal Mexicans in this country, a 1 million increase would be a relatively small percentage.

I think you mean "culture". The standard of living of all muslims in the US is high, be they Arabs, Iranians, Indian, etc. That is why US muslims aren't any where near as radicalized as those in Europe who have been marginalized by the respective racist state policies there. In Europe, they don't have Affirmative Action, so muslim/minority unemployment is often high. In the US, almost all legal and voluntary immigrants are H1-B visa types who are elite and college educated.



Nope. They are being exploited. Much, much less pay, no benefits, low safety standards for the same work, and plenty of racism to boot.


Racism aside, he's still right. Why should a country outsource it's high paying high tech and manufacturing jobs abroad when there are millions unemployed blue collar workers forced into low paying service industry jobs and over 2 million unemployed high tech workers. Then insource high tech workers from India, East Asia and the former East bloc countries, etc., and pay them $10,000 - $12,000 less in pay and benefits. They also insource millions of illegals from Mexico and other Latin and S. American countries to depress the already plumetting blue collar salaries. African Americans and Latinos are hurt the most by Mexican illegals.

During the 1980's and 1990's it was critically important to import high tech workers--for otherwise there would have been no high-tech boom. But now, there's simply no reason for it. You can sort of make the same case, though much less so, about the past decades of illegals who came to work in the ag industry.

Like I said, racism aside, Lou Dobbs is right.




Thought it was more like 3-4 million per year.

This news article is a joke. Come on, I rarely come across Indian immigrants in large numbers, compared to mexicans and hispanic immigrants from south of the US border.

I would rather have the ICE and immigration people focus on keeping a BIG eye on mexican illegal immigrants, as they take up jobs that blue collar workers could do.

The number, not percentage, of Indians living in the US is way smaller than that of mexicans living in the US.

I'd rather be with an Indian than a mexican . Mexicans are too violent, hot-tempered and are racist. They think they're superior to Asians. Whatevers.

You mean the "rate of change" or "growth rate" of the Indian population... I made this minor mistake too and had to correct myself. Asian Indians are about 0.7% of the total population of the US. Hispanics make up 13% with Mexicans Americans/illegals making up maybe 7-10% of that.


Not very enlightened of you, to say...

Damn, now they're going to steal all our computer science and doctor jobs.

^That's exactly what Lou Dobbs has been saying.

Funny, but sometime ago, I came acrose a blog, which some guy in Australia participated in. He referred to Indians in that land down undah as vile "thieves" and so on who steal other peoples' high-paying, college-educated jobs. Then he concluded his ferocious rant with "and that is why I now have to deliver pizzas instead of program a computer!"

How can Indians "steal" jobs unless they come up to you in the employment line and steal your application out of your hands.

Other than that, its all fair game if they apply and get hired over other people.

^ Krikey! Tell that to the bloke who's now delivering pizzas for a living.

Seriously, I'm speaking as a common sense protectionist. I don't buy into Lou Dobbs racism, but his thinking is no different than that of any government in the world that runs a rich country. Only the US is so insane in outsourcing high paying manufacturing jobs and high tech jobs at the expense of its middle class, white collar population. And then insourcing millions, or rather, tens of millions of poor people to exploit at the expense of its own middle class blue collar population.

Besides, during the 1980's and 1990's, Indians in India were constantly griping about how America was stealing India's best and brightest causing a massive "brain drain" out of India.

During that period, Indians and East Asians, Philipinos, Western Europeans, Eastern Eurpeans, Arabs, Persians, etc., immigrants played a vital role in the high tech boom. But now, there are over 2 million high tech workers who are unemployed or underemployed, working in the low paying service industry and so on. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to say: "Whao, we gotta think this one thru!"

i used to watch lou dobbs and there's nothing racist about what he says. he reports on the issues he finds important (i think at one point he left CNN when they wouldn't let him report on what he wanted) despite being constantly labeled as a bigot for giving a valid opinion on illegal immigration.

i like his show. i am damn sick and tired of the paris hilton, anna nicole smith, iran is evil CRAP that is all over the news today. let's call him a racist just because he concentrates on mexican illegals when in fact most of them are actually from there

I guess if you're a computer science major or a skilled worker, then you're fuked. Hey but there is one good thing for Asian Americans, since they are viewed as the perpetual foreigner, it's not hard for them to get a job in Silicon Valley. Now if you're a different ethnic group, then it might not be so great for you.

Only people who are in skilled professions like welder, carpentry, construction, needs to worry about the massive influx of the illegals into the country.

Because Asians are seen as foreigners, it's easier for them to get jobs in Silicon Valley???? People get jobs according to their skill levels. Stop making nonsense statements.

You're right on these two points.

Accounting jobs have been going to India too. Average Indian computer programmer makes about 1/10 of what an American makes, similiar for average Indian accountant vs American accountant. But this is outsourcing.

The insourcing of highly educated people from India, East Asian, Eastern Europe and so on, affects people here in the US too. Foreingers, particularly non-white, get paid signficantly less in wages and benefits. And they're more qualified (harder working, brighter, more productive) than the average American high tech worker. Why? Because the elite/super elite of one country is more competitive than the average worker of another.

American workers are still the most productive in the world! But it hard to compete against people making a fraction of what you're making.



Did you know that in India, cash strapped backpackers (tourists) from Europe and America are hired by Indian firms to serve as tech support?!? This is well known amongst poor Brit college students who want to spend a lengthy vacation in India. I guess they are NOT "stealing" jobs away from Indians.


No. He is a racist. Why? Because he doesn't fret over white illegals. There's over 1 million white illegals from Canada and Europe. A lot of Canada's most wanted come to hide in the US. A huge percentage of id fraud committed against elderly Americans is done by Canadians.

The ecstacy/meth smuggling thru Mexico is controlled by the Jewish mafia based in Israel. The Russians are the middle level guys, i.e. muscle, enforcers, etc. And the drugs originate in Netherlands where they have lax to no laws on drug use and production. (I'm not sure what the Mexican mafia's role is...)

Dobbs is quite selective on what he focusses on.

Having said that, his protectionism is nothing more than common sense.

Who said the US is the only place that oursources jobs? The UK, Canada, Holland, etc. all outsource jobs as well to India. Many Indian firms even outsource work to the Phillippines and Eastern Europe. Outsourcing makes sense and is a good economic practice that I encourage more companies to take.

And no, Brits getting jobs in India are not stealing them from Indian workers.

all illegal immigrants should get deport. i don't care if you're korean, indian, white, black, mexican, chinese, whatever.. if you're illegal, you should go back.

Touchee.

No one does it like America. The Germans actually have a trade surplus with China. I wouldn't be suprised if Japan and many other European countries do too.


Deutschland, Deutschland über alles!


P.S. Some outsourcing is prudent, like Hyundai or Toyota building plants in India and the US and so on. Since they are building in one's country, one is more likely to buy that car. Further, Japanese plants in the US actually send their cars to Japan, because it was cheaper to build in the US than in Japan itself, despite the fact that American PPP is higher than Japanese PPP.

I'm only for deporting criminal illegals. It's not okay to deport illegals in general, especially Mexicans, since for decades, thru a wink-and-a-knod, the ag industry had been lobbying to bring more of them in.

Having said that, I'm for closing down the border completely: Once that is done, all newcomers who are here illegally should be deported. The people living here for years and years and working hard and obeying all but the sham immigration laws, or protocols rather, should be grandfathered with generous amnesty.

And when the US actually has a bonafied labor shortage, be it blue collar or white collar, then we bring in more people. This is a win-win situation for all.

Easier said than done. Besides, closing the borders means enormous economic losses for the United States. Even if the borders are closed, illegal immigrants will find a way to get through, especially within those miles and miles of ungaurded border.

^ Please. That's what the Man, i.e. Dubya and his masters--the ag industry, the hotel, fast food & other service industries, the construction industry want us to believe. Bush!t was going thru the motions when he promised to build a fence. They built a few miles out of 2000 miles and then then said that a virtual fence is better. That was all a PR stunt for the cameras to catch.

China and India should colonise America.

They should give the south to the Mexicans and then enslave everyone.

^ Are you blind?!? That's exactly what's going on now.

Its a lot more than that. Closing borders also means a lack of tourism and cross-border exchange. In addition to that, legal citizens will suffer....not just illegal ones.

^ Legal citizens are already suffering.

1. Stagnant and/or declining wages.
2. Stagnant and/or declining health care and with skyrockting costs.
3. Companies raiding employee retirement funds.
4. Cost of living is going up: Gas, College Education, etc.
5. More low paying service jobs. Tens of millions of high paying, high benefits manfacturing jobs lost.
6. 2+ million unemployed high tech workers and growing. Millions more are underemployed.
7. Personal debt and bankruptcy on the rise--BIG TIME.
8. Enormous Trade Deficits with China
9. ETC. ETC. ETC.

It is better to pay a little more for products and services and have a high paying job with job security and health care, than to have a much lower paying job with no job security and go to Wal-Mart to buy your families essentials.

At the current rate of illegal immigration from south of the border, in 50 years, "America" will need to change its name to New Mexico!

Illegal alien protestors demanding amnesty and American citizenship--but waving Mexico's flag!

In Mexico, Mexicans have the right to make citizen's arrests if they know someone is an illegal immigrant. In Mexico, it is a felony to be in the country illegally, i.e. you can go to prison for it. The Mexican government has been duplicitously manuevering with Bush behind the scenes to only let Mexican nationals cross the border into the US--and become citizens.

^Just a side note, but try to combine your posts into one instead of triple posting.

I have a cousin up in Seattle, even he says the rate of the illegal immigrants coming into Washington is staggering. It's not as bad as Cali or the other border states, but it will be there in a few more years. Even in the state of Virginia, there is a huge influx of illegals there, when i visited last year. What's funny was that most of the Viet restaurants hired them! LOL
They're just not in the border states anymore. LOL. 3000 to 8000 will cross the border everyday, most will be dissappering in American society!
Here's a report by Lou Dobbs on the cost of illegal immigration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY6t2ckpb5g
So you're right that a few million comes into the US every year!

Hey I wanna ask you, since Vietnam has the 2nd fastest growing economy in the world for a few years already, which country do you think will be a 1st world nation first? Mexico or Vietnam? We're a few decades behind because of war and the embargo,but our confucian culture makes up for it.

I guess this fella is a little upset about illegals huh?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DHMxeXOgR8...ted&search=

They are automatically criminals by default. They entered illegally, therefore breaking the law. That makes them a criminal. Deport them all...
Use the FBI or whatever send them back. Granting amnesty is a slap in the face to all those who obeyed the laws and entered legally.
I don't hate those people who came here to find a better life but I do have issues with them demanding we change our policies to benifit them.

tinman01,

You're a compassionate person! What about those that have firm roots here?!? And also would you throw out people with kids born here?!?

Well, at any rate, you're obviously not aware (or don't care) that Mexican illegals have been invited in, again, thru a wink-and-a-nod, by the ag industry for decades. Now the fast food industries, hotel industry, construction industry, etc., heavily lobby congress to maintain the status quo. Illegal Mexicans are everywhere in the lower 48 states, but they don't go to Canada where no on hires them. So blame the employers for hiring them.

You can't just invite people in, use and abuse them (low wages, no benefites, massive discrimination), and then throw them out. Man, that just ain't kosher.

Once the US, or rather corporate America, stops this sham wink-and-a-nod invitation, and the borders are sealed shut, then you can throw out all illegals--provided all the ones already here, who were invited in, are given amnesty first.

----------------------------------------

Thats because Vietnamese youths are going to college. Yeah, I'm shocked when I go to Nguyen Krom, aka Little Saigon, in LA. Half the waiters, all the bus boys, dishwashers, etc. are Mexicans. One waiter I met even spoke perfect Vietnamese--far better than mine, and with all the correct formal salutations with respect to age and gender and so on.

I hear its the same with Korean businesses.

But not so with Chinese. They use their own illegals. That great dim sum restaurant in (or around) Little Saigon is only staffed by Chinese.


There all over the US. In every state, North, South, East, West, central, you name it.


Seriously, I have a lot of doubts as to whether they ever will. Calvinist and Confucian countries take about 40-50 years to fully modernize. Those countries that have never been colonized and/or have been free since WWII should have kept up with the Confucian and Calvinist countries. They are modernizing but at an agonizingly slow pace. The problem here is that their population is growing faster than their modernization, which creates enormous problems, i.e. unemployment, crime, and the other ills of urbanization.

Crime and unemployment go hand in hand. It's a real chicken-n-egg connundrum. Remember, I'm not talking about superiority or inferiority or any retarded bullsh!t like that, for if these countries converted to Judaism, the most competitive culture of all, then they'd all kick @$$ and beat the both Calvinist and the Confucians in no time.

This is the modified (Max) Weberian hypothesis. For those who disagree with it, I strongly suggest you go and kiss old Max's @ss.

The answer is obvious. VIETNAM!!!! How the hell can mexico be #1 and scare uncle sam? Pfft. mexico is only good for housing car factories and sweat shops down in Tijuana and guadalajara.

Vietnamese or Asians are hardworking and we take quality control into high consideration when doing our jobs.

Over time, i have to agree with Tinman01. Its not nice for citizens of a country to bend over backwards when their own government wont do the same for them. And yes it is a slap in the face for people who came in LEGALLY!!

I dont understand how Citizens pay all that much in tax money and how much of it goes to people who have not even contributed a penny to it? Talk about daylight robbery. I see only the agricultural sector profiting from this scam with Americans getting screwed left,right & center. That is not right

I just read about their history briefly, since the 1870s Mexico has been ruled by their people without any attempts of control by foreigners, but yet after 130 years they have not yet fully modernized. It's far from a 3rd world nation but yet it's not even close to being a 1st world nation. Their economy is ranked around 13th/14th by most sources, but yet the wealth disparity and distribution is staggering. It's like there is hardly a middle class, just the extremely rich, upper middle class, to the extremely poor. The Mexican whites, the ones with full European blood are in control of their country, while the mestizos to the indigenous Mexicans are wallowing in extreme poverty.

With the exception of Republic of Ireland I cannot think of one Catholic country that has fully modernized and built their country up by themselves. Countries like Italy, Spain and France does not count since their country fully modernized and became wealthy during the age of imperialism/colonisation, where they ransacked other countries natural resources and enslaved other people to build up their nations. The Catholic culture is a culture that is not competitive in a modern world to keep up with the Joneses.

how the fu-k can Indians be illegal aliens when it was rightfully their land to begin with?

hmmm hmmm, thoughts for the mind.

I think you'll find we're talking about Illegal Indians from India, you know, somewhere in Asia right next to pakistan and sri lanka? Not the native American Indians your thinking about

Yeah, I'm suprised they've been "free" for that long. I thought it was only about 70-100 years at the most. Mexico definitely is a case against the liberal mantra which more or less reads: "environment is destiny". This is why I said I think that Mexico, the way things are now and if the culture doesn't fundamentally change then it... will never be a first world country, since its modernization is painfully slow and is outpaced by the population growth. The population growth rates of poor countries is always high; only educated populations, or more to the point, educated women, have low birth rates. Further, Mexico is right next door to America, the richest country in the world. There is a natural benefit from being next door. Further still, America has absord about 20% of Mexico's population in the last 20-30 years via illegal immigration. Mexico's recent census actually showed a decline in population by a few million, and was around 100 million. If no illegals were let into the US, than that number would be more like 120-130 million. The offical census for hispanics in the US put them at 13% (of 300 million) or about 40 million. But the illegal hispanic population is 12-20 million. I'm not sure how much of them are counted in the census. Clearly many are not. Of course, millions of the legal ones are legal because they have "anchor babies".

On the flip side, those racist IQ sh!theads would naturally see Mexico as a prime example of why "Genetics (Race, IQ) is destiny." I'm refering here of course about how the white Mexicans rule and own almost everything while the mestizos and indigenous population live in poverty.


European catholics are very similiar to Calvinists/Protestants. Isn't France a Catholic country?

Mexicans aren't just Catholics in the European sense, i.e. they don't have that near-Calvinist work ethic, but their culture is based on both tribalism and that Aztec/Mayan civilization/culture, as well as European Catholicism.

At any rate, it's definitely "weaker". Or if you prefer... It's not as shallow and materialistic as the more "competitive" cultures.

"Judaism, the most competitive culture of all"......................true, until the Coming of the 12th Iman........

He 's going to show Judaism the 1 True Path. (it is going to be very interesting, and very bloody)