The number of Indian nationals attempting to illegally migrate into the United States from Canada has fallen steeply in a year, recording a nearly two-third decline.
According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection or CBP at the northern border, the number of total encounters recorded for the 2025 fiscal year, which spans October 2024 to September 2025, was 85,747, as against 198,929 in the previous fiscal. That itself marked a 57% fall.
The number of Indians apprehended in the 2024 fiscal was reported at 43,764, or approximately 22% of the total. That figure fell to 14,054 in the 2025 fiscal, down nearly 68%, and the percentage also decreased to just over 16%.
The fall in numbers came after the administration of US President Donald Trump cracked down on illegal immigration and, among matters, placed tariffs on Canada for allowing the inflow of such immigrants into the country.
As the numbers reached a historic high last year, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or IRCC told the Hindustan Times via email, “As soon as we learned of this abuse of our system, including the impact to our shared border with the US, we took action.”
“Addressing irregular migration is a priority for Canada. Canada also works collaboratively with the US and international partners on issues of visa integrity, border management and safe and orderly migration,” the IRCC spokesperson said.
{{/usCountry}}“Addressing irregular migration is a priority for Canada. Canada also works collaboratively with the US and international partners on issues of visa integrity, border management and safe and orderly migration,” the IRCC spokesperson said.
{{/usCountry}}IRCC had seen an increase in exploitation of its temporary resident visas, including students. “What was once a low-risk temporary resident programme is now being assessed as higher-risk given changes to the global migration context, including the growing number of conflicts and crises, increased abuse and fraud, and increased organised smuggling,” the spokesperson added.
The trend in illegal border crossings reverted close to the status in 2022, when of the overall 109,535 such attempts, Indians comprised nearly 16%. That percentage remained constant in 2023, though the total rose sharply to 189,402, with Indians accounting for 30,010. Those numbers ballooned the next year.
The data, of course, is limited to those that were apprehended by border officers and the numbers of those not detected are unavailable.