Chamatkarik Shree Hanumanji Mandir in Ahmedabad, western India, is regarded by believers as a place to pray here to obtain visas from Western countries. Diaa Hadid/NPR Closed subtitles
Ahmedabad, India - A Hindu priest who sends his passport to a temple in this western Indian city. The priest's fee is about $2, and prays to Monkey God Hanuman that person's visa application to the United States will be accepted. The prayer ended soon, and another pleader handed him his passport.
Chamatkarik Shree Hanumanji Mandir is one of many "visa temples" that are well known in India This boasts to answer the prayers of Indians seeking to immigrate abroad.
Pew Research Center says more than 5 million Indian Americans are one of the largest immigrant groups in the United States.
But not everyone got visa prayers. According to the Indian Foreign Ministry, the United States has expelled more than 600 Indian nationals since President Trump took office in January, who have no legal status.
Immigration, as well as new U.S. tariffs, have become a tough problem for India due to the action of driving a second Trump administration.
One person presented the image of the beloved Indian monkey god Hanumanji Mandir on March 19 by an administrator of Chamatkarik Shree Hanumanji Mandir and was in Ahmedabad of Ahmedabad in western India on March 19. Diaa Hadid/NPR Closed subtitles
Pew estimated 725,000 Indian nationals have no legal status in the United States.
A woman in Ahmedabad said her daughter was among them. The woman only gave her name Maribehn because she said she was worried that her daughter would be identified and then deported.
“There is no work here,” Maribene said. So her daughter and son sold their houses and farmland and borrowed money to pay traffickers and their two children to enter the United States
Maribe said her daughter is now working in a hair salon. She wasn't sure where her daughter lives, but knew she was happy.
According to Indian news media, the United States began to expel more than 100 Indian nationals on military flights just two weeks after President Trump's inauguration. They were tied and bound and shared on X on April 4 by Michael W. Banks, head of the U.S. Border Patrol.
He warned: "If you cross illegally, you will be deleted."
When they landed, the deported told local media that they were tied up throughout the journey, including a stopover - about 40 hours.
Deportation - mostly men, women and children - shocked many in India.
“It is harmful, inhumane, and violates human rights,” Sushant Singh Consulting Editor caravan The magazine wrote, the deportation method.
Immigrants wearing masks were deported from the United States, who entered a U.S. military plane on February 6 at a police car at the airport in Ahmedabad, India. ajit solanki/ap Closed subtitles
India and the United States are major defense partners. Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls President Trump "my friend." In the first Trump administration, the two held politically styled rallies in each other's countries.
Modi did not publicly comment on deportation, not in India, nor did he visit Trump a few days after his first military flight landing in February.
But the Indian government news website quoted the Foreign Minister as saying officials discussed the matter during Modi's visit to the United States. "India's treatment of the U.S. authorities strongly registered treatment for landing in Amritsar (February 5), especially in the case of using sha ties, especially with women," the website said.
The Indian government did not respond to NPR's request for comment; neither did Modi's Indian nationalist Bharatiya Janata.
However, many pro-government channels in India soon assembled into Modi's defense, such as fiery broadcaster Arnab Goswami, who said the deported Indian nationals deserved.
"How do you want to treat criminals?" he asked. Perhaps, he laughed, “These people must be brought back first, with a glass of champagne in his hand.”
Analysts say India has a bigger problem: Just like a finalizing a trade deal, they hope to eliminate the 26% tariff Trump announced on most Indian goods in April. The government then suspended tariffs for 90 days.
"India has so many ways to live that it is susceptible to the influence of Trump-led America," said Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Foreign Policy.
India also appears to be trying to evade the statement that the Trump administration encourages India to resolve its long-standing dissatisfaction with its neighbor Pakistan. It was announced on Saturday that the ceasefire between the two countries was announced after President Trump's worst battle in decades. This was triggered after India blamed Pakistan for its radical attack, killing 26 people in Indian-owned Kashmir, mainly Hindu men.
But as Modi guides India in the Trump administration, political headaches caused by immigration may break out - as Indians may continue to try to reach the United States.
Many people are from Prime Minister Modi Gujarat.
The main square of Dingucha, a village in western India, has a population of 4,000. Now, many residents live in the United States and donate funds to build Dingucha’s infrastructure. Diaa Hadid/NPR Closed subtitles
During a recent NPR visit to the sleepy village of Dingucha, the old man sat under a tree in the square. The children hit a ball with sticks and bicycles. The village’s population is small for India: only 3,000 people, many of whom live in the United States are obvious: From Hindu temples to municipal buildings, they pay for almost all of the infrastructure here. Inside the municipal building, administrator Jayesh Chaudhary said the donations signaled people here, “people who go to the United States make a lot of money, so it attracts them to try to go this path as well.”
The journey can be dangerous. Three years ago, a mother, father and their two children froze to death while crossing the United States from Canada during a blizzard. Indian media recently reported being deported along with one of the Trump administration's military flights.
"Even if it's just a 1% chance of success, people will keep working hard," Chaudhary said.
At least one woman hopes that is not the case. In the nearby village of Vaghpur, dairy farmer Chetna Rabari said she last heard her husband’s puzzling path to North America in the Dominican Republic, costing $24,000. He sold some of his cattle, used his family's savings, and borrowed more from his neighbors.
Chetna Rabari was photographed on March 17 near the cattle feeding station in the North Indian village of Vaghpur. Diaa Hadid/NPR Closed subtitles
Rabari said her husband wanted to change the lives of three children. "Will they change here?" she recalled him and said, "Only herds like us."
Now, Rabari raises her children alone and pays off her husband’s debts. She also raised eight cows. That's all they have now, just her, going all out until he returns - she says she still believes in what could happen. "I'm still waiting for him to call," she said.
Sonal Kellogg contributed to the report from Gujarat State, India.