New Delhi: As per the US Citizenship and Immigration Services data, 59,100 Indians became citizens of the United States in 2023, Scroll.in reported.According to the report, Indians were the second-largest group, by country of birth, to be naturalised in 2023.From Mexico, at least 12.7%, or 1.11 lakh persons were naturalised in the US. India, at 6.7%, occupied the second spot in terms of the number of persons naturalised in the US in 2023.The Philippines at 5.1% (44,800), the Dominican Republic with 4.0% (35,200), and Cuba at 3.8% (33,200) are among the top five countries whose citizens became naturalised in the US in 2023.In order to become a citizen of the US, a non-citizen must spend at least five years “continuously” (or three years in case of a spouse of a US citizen) in the country as a lawful permanent resident.The Scroll.in report underlined that according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the median years spent by all citizens naturalised in 2023 was seven while for Indians, the median years spent was 5.9.Sharp rise in Indians illegally crossing US borderIn December 2023, Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan, quoted the US Customs and Border Protection data in parliament to answer a question on the number of illegal Indian immigrants encountered by US authorities on their border, which underlined that there is a steady rise in the numbers of Indians trying to illegally migrate to the US.Also read: 5x Hike in Undocumented Indian Immigrants to the US, Nearly 97,000 Caught Over Past Year: US DataAs per the data shared by the minister, in 2022-23, 96,917 Indians tried to illegally migrate to the US, while 63,927 attempted to migrate in 2021-22, 30,662 in 2020-21, 1227 in 2019-20 and 8027 in 2018-19.As per an earlier report published by Scroll.in, many young men from Haryana have cited unemployment as the reason due to which they try to take illegal routes to enter the North American country.
