Over the past four years, 825 Tajik citizens have been detained in the United States, and 88 of them deported, according to a report released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on December 20.
The report covers the period from October 2020 to September 30, 2024, and includes data on detentions, arrests, and deportations of foreign nationals.
According to the report, 825 Tajik citizens have been detained over the reporting period, 103 of them were arrested, and 88 others were deported. The arrests and deportations were due to violations of U.S. law, though specific details were not disclosed.
Over the past 12 months, the United States deported 271,500 individuals to 192 countries, marking the highest figure in the past decade.
In June of this year, ICE detained eight individuals from Tajikistan in New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia on suspicion of ties to the Islamic State (IS) terror group. Three of them were later deported to Tajikistan and Russia.
In recent years, Mexico has become the most popular route for illegal migration to the United States from Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan.
The New York Post reported on June 20, 2024 that more than 1,500 migrants from Tajikistan have come across the border between October 2020 and May 2024.
In the previous 14 years before that, there had been just 26 Tajikistan nationals who crossed.
Just this year alone, there have been 500 people from the country entering the United States, according to The Post.
Recall, President-elect Donald Trump in early November after his victory in the presidential election floated a wide range of proposals that he says would improve the United States’ financial picture, many of which will require action from Congress, where Republicans will control the Senate and hope to control the House.
Among Trump’s economic plans is deporting millions of immigrants. According to NBC News, Trump has said he will carry out “the largest deportation in the history of our country” of undocumented immigrants, claiming it would help the economy by freeing up housing and opening up jobs for U.S. citizens.
Business groups have warned, though, that deporting millions of immigrants could create a labor shortage that would ultimately drive up prices, especially in areas like food production and housing where immigrants make up a significant share of the workforce.
Across the economy, an analysis by researchers at the University of New Hampshire reportedly found that a mass deportation of immigrants could reduce the U.S. economy, as measured by gross domestic product, by as much as 6.2%, or about US$1.7 trillion in lost productivity.
