IndiaPost.com - Illegal immigrants from India on the rise

HOUSTON: 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 US.

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 says a special report in Houston Chronicle.

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 US 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 US Department of Homeland Security.

Undocumented Indians, however, remain a small segment of the total estimated population of 11.6 million illegal immigrants in the US 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 US, 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.

Houstan Chronicle also pointed out that more than half of Indian immigrants who came to the US 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 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Houston. ''Most are Mexicans, South and Central Americans, and some Chinese."