Smuggler reveals migration routes to US for Indian migrants

The small Indian village of Gholpura, four hours north of New Delhi, feels very distant from the U.S. Yet, the influence of a country more than 8,000 miles away is undeniable.

Gholpura has lost its sense of community: there are no children playing in the streets, and only a few homes remain occupied by those who have not migrated.

"Our community is going abroad not because they must, but they are compelled to do so," one Indian villager told ABC News.

ABC News spoke with a man who wished to remain anonymous due to his intention to enter the U.S. He met with a smuggler who would assist him in coming to the U.S. illegally at a local billiards hall.

"I have been doing this job for the last 10 years," the smuggler told ABC News. "In the total count of people that I have sent, nearly 250 people went to America."

He is part of a sprawling international network. For those willing to pay upwards of $100,000 in total, the smuggler sends migrants on what he refers to as the "Donkey Route." This term is a play on the Punjabi idiom "Dunki," which means to hop from place to place.

From the quiet fields of rural India to the deserts of northern Mexico runs an international migration superhighway, funneling tens of thousands of Indians to the U.S. border each year. Since 2022, more than 100,000 Indians have arrived in the U.S., making it the country with the most migrants from a non-Latin American nation. All of this is facilitated by transnational organized crime.

In various parts of northern India, there are countless advertisements for immigration services and English-language learning, targeting numerous villagers eager to migrate. While some of these opportunities are legal, a significant portion is not.

Human smugglers are rampant in this part of the world, meeting the demands of thousands of would-be migrants each year.

"They go from here to Delhi," the smuggler said. "Then to Dubai from Delhi. Then, from Dubai, we get visas issued for different countries like Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, and Cancun. There are a lot of border guards, who openly take money. They will keep taking money and it becomes a chain."

All roads lead to Mexico, where Indians join others, a veritable United Nations of migrants, often abused and treated poorly by the cartels who see them simply as a commodity.

For those willing to pay a bit more, they get separated from the rest and sent to individual cartel safe houses.

Emigration from India, particularly from northern states affected by political and sectarian violence and high unemployment, has surged recently. This trend has made Indians some of the cartel smuggler's best customers.

President Donald Trump has targeted this type of smuggling by deploying the military to the border in an effort to reduce it.

Back in India, the migrant from the billiards hall told ABC News he hoped to reach the U.S. before Trump took office. It is not known if he succeeded, as he stopped responding to messages right after he left. However, where he goes, others are likely to follow.

"So, to date, I have around 700 passports who want to go abroad," the smuggler said. "They only want to go to America. America is a craze. And they only want to go to America at any cost. No matter what the cost is. At the end, a person has only one thing, life."