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00:01Thousands of young Indian men are slipping through jungles, rivers and border fences
00:07with no visas, no guarantees and no way back.
00:15What's triggering this exodus?
00:18A feed full of promises, fast cars and curated lives in American and European cities.
00:25All of a sudden it becomes a silver bullet solution to all your problems.
00:28If only I could get there, I could have all this nice stuff.
00:32While social media sells the dream, agents sell the route.
00:44This is illegal immigration, an underground trail that crosses borders illegally.
00:51Now the pattern has shifted to almost all the cities and states of India.
00:58Most don't know what they're getting into and many others vanish.
01:05They're not going to be able to get a man to get a man to get a man to get
01:07a man to get a man to get a man.
01:33My friends are Sagar and my friends.
01:37There is no problem.
01:4022-year-old Mohit Katia is on a journey that might change the course of his life.
01:49The first payment will be cleared.
01:51The process will continue.
01:54As long as possible, you will get out of here.
01:57OK, OK.
01:59But right now, the only certain thing is that he can't go back and he doesn't know what's ahead.
02:09This isn't just a journey, it's an exit plan.
02:14India's GDP per capita hovers around 2,700 US dollars, five times below the global average.
02:23Across the rural north, thousands are searching for a way out.
02:27From joblessness, low wages and dead-end futures.
02:33According to government data, nearly a million people left Punjab between 2016 and 2021.
02:42The signs are everywhere.
02:44Visa agents, test prep centers, ads promising quick approvals and one-way tickets out.
02:52It's part of pop culture too.
02:56Now, the fever grips Mohit's home state of Haryana.
03:00He's a farmer's son and one more young man ready to risk it all.
03:30To Mohit, the legal route never felt like a real option.
03:38But what I have done with that.
03:38I was born in the country of America.
03:40I have never tried legally that American.
03:41For example, I have been born in 19-21 years.
03:45People have been born in 19-21 years.
03:46They have been born in 19-21 years,
03:47If you're a travel history, your life is better.
03:50If I can work for 4 or 5 years, I can go the far away from where I want.
03:53But if I do the same work in India for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years,
03:58then I can't do what I want to do in India.
04:06Between 2010 and 2022, the number of South Asians in the US jumped by 60%.
04:16Undocumented migration is part of that growth.
04:21Professor Irfan Noruddin has spent years studying the politics behind migration
04:27and how shifting policies are leaving people with fewer and fewer choices.
04:34The fact is that lots of people do still try and get a visa and all of that,
04:38but for people who really want to settle down and make a life in America,
04:41not just temporary, the truth is that there are very few options for them.
04:45But now, because you have this challenge of going through legal means,
04:50it provides an opportunity for criminal entrepreneurs, if you would,
04:54to say, hey, for the right amount of money, we can get you in.
05:15The path he's talking about has a name, the donkey or donkey route.
05:20Donkey, from the Punjabi word to hop, is an underground network stitched across continents,
05:27from India to Latin America, through stopovers and border crossings,
05:32all aimed at a final destination, the United States or Europe.
05:44Behind every donkey journey, there's a middleman, a salesman of dreams, the agent.
05:52We track down one of them, a seasoned operator inside this underground network.
05:59His job, to move people across borders and pull the right strings to keep them moving.
06:26Behind closed doors, Mandeep reveals the inner workings of the donkey route playbook.
06:46The agents play a central role, charging exorbitant fees to orchestrate complex travel arrangements.
06:53They offer a rate card. Pay more, you fly, with forged visas and safer stopovers.
07:01Pay less, you walk, through jungles, rivers and deserts.
07:24Mojit chooses the cheapest way, with the highest risk, at a cost of about 38,000 US dollars.
07:33He mortgages his father's farmland, and when his younger brother refuses to stay behind,
07:38he doubles the debt.
07:52The journey wasn't theirs alone.
07:55Friends from the village, boys they'd grown up with, were coming too.
07:59The day of departure had finally arrived.
08:05Mojit sets off in June 2024 with a promise.
08:09Three months to America.
08:11But two weeks on, he remains holed up in a cheap Delhi hotel.
08:32Mojit is now finally on the move, but this time he's not just watching the dream, he's in it, filming
08:40his own donkey journey.
08:41Hello, my brother.
08:44Join me.
08:45Here for a moment.
08:46It's called him to come.
08:47This time-to-time is taking place.
08:50We give up all of this information.
08:51Since we left a call, there's no alert.
08:53All our support, here are all the people.
08:58We have all of these videos.
08:59So, I thought we could take a trip to the vlog.
09:01I thought, this trip should be a most dangerous trip.
09:06Why would we all show you everyone?
09:09It's hard to think about how hard it will happen.
09:15There are many towers,
09:17our jazz was at 12 or 12 hours,
09:19and we'll go and then we'll be quiet.
09:21We'll be tired.
09:26In the airport,
09:28there were officers who have there.
09:33There are people who have to go to the line.
09:42For Mohit, the entry point was Ethiopia, chosen for its easy e-visa access.
10:16From Brazil, he flew to Guiana. This is where a new set of players in the human smuggling chain come
10:23into action, the Donkers.
10:38Donkers are the ground-level operators of the Dunki network. They guide migrants across borders, or often through dangerous terrain.
10:47But they aren't just facilitators. They enforce payments, manage risks, and operate outside the reach of law.
10:56The Donkers are doing a lot of risk. It's basically human trafficking. The whole world is the same.
11:03And now, Mohit is in their hands. With every new leg of the journey, the stakes rise.
11:12From Guiana, he crosses into Brazil, and then into Bolivia, one checkpoint at a time, through boats, vans, and bribes.
11:27This is eight people's boat. It's about eight people. It's about 15-15 dollars.
11:32This is the same.
11:36We started on the boat from the boat.
11:42It seems that the water is very big and there is a lot of water.
11:47We'll be at the lake as it is by the river.
11:49This was the mismo HOW it was to be at the river.
11:52They told us, we just had the fire kernel, in his way.
11:57It was the first place that came from the river.
11:59This is the way to run the river.
11:59In that van, he left us for 17-18 hours for saving money for.
12:05We had to pay the pay.
12:05Then, we had a lot of money.
12:07We were in the very expensive way of drinking water.
12:08The water we had.
12:09There was no need for the water to eat.
12:13Every stop, migrants leave behind clothes, bags, ids, beaches become dumping grounds.
12:36Now, the biggest obstacle lies ahead.
12:40A stretch so brutal, it breaks bodies and hope alike, the Darien Gap, and they're preparing
12:48for it.
13:06So, when we heard about Panama, we heard that if we took Panama, then we reached America.
13:18Between Colombia and Panama lies the Darien Gap, 100 kilometers of swamp and lawlessness.
13:28No roads and no way back.
13:32Come on, come on, come on.
13:35We're going to see what happens with us.
13:38We're going to see what happens with our people.
13:39We're going to see what happens with us.
13:58Mohit's journey to migrate to the US, from his village in India through the forests of
14:03Central America, has already pushed him to the edge.
14:07Now comes the most dangerous stretch yet, the Darien Gap, a 100 kilometer corridor of jungle.
14:16In 2023, over half a million migrants crossed it en route to the US, more than double the
14:23year before, and a staggering leap from just a few hundred a decade ago.
14:28And now we're going to see how we have to make a battle in the middle of the river.
14:35We've seen the Panama, and we've also cut the trees.
14:40The trees, and the trees, and the trees.
14:43If you're sitting there and sitting there, you'll get prisoners.
14:48Then you'll get prisoners.
14:49You'll get a lot of the jungle, there's a lot of the season.
14:51You'll get tired, and there's all the illusions.
15:14But on the third mountain, the jungle changed.
15:25The International Organization for Migration's Missing Migrants Project recorded 174 deaths on the Darien route in 2024.
15:36Officials caution the real total could be higher, since many bodies are not recovered in such remote terrain.
15:55There is a lot of Mafia here.
15:58Mohit and his brother reach an army-run camp in Panama.
16:02They think it's a checkpoint for safety. It's not.
16:27Flags for deportation, a desperate Mohit and his brother make a run for it.
16:49Across the Darien, it's a pattern. The jungle is carved up by rival Mafia groups.
16:56They control the roots. They control the violence.
17:01They control the violence.
17:19Mohit is now trapped, crammed into a tiny room with no way to reach out for help.
17:25They are giving food. They have guns and weapons.
17:37Someone is talking to someone. Someone is talking to someone.
17:40They are shooting. They are shooting. They are shooting.
17:42They are shooting. They are shooting.
17:49They are shooting.
17:54They are네요.
17:58The ransom,N.1500 US dollars ahead.
18:03Paid by his family via agents from India,
18:06through forex and crypto wallets.
18:09A system that is designed to disappear.
18:12Without the government and the information,
18:14it will reach out to where the money comes from.
18:16The money comes from the digital currency,
18:19and it will convert the money into a phantom wallet.
18:24The phantom will transfer the money from the world.
18:28It will not be able to trace.
18:31After Mohit is released, he pushes on,
18:34through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras on horseback
18:38into Guatemala.
18:39Then, came Tapachula in Mexico.
18:43After six months and 13 countries, Mohit has made it.
18:48America is finally in sight.
18:53Mexico.
18:55Problem Mexico.
18:57We reached the border cross Mexico to America.
19:02We were very happy that finally,
19:04we had to do what we wanted to do.
19:07We had to do what we wanted to do.
19:09We had to ask you, brothers.
19:11We had to ask you, brothers.
19:12We had to ask you, brothers.
19:13We had to ask you, brothers.
19:14We had to ask you, brothers.
19:15What did you see?
19:15Crossing into San Diego should have been the end.
19:19Instead, everything changed again.
19:23And what did we say about what happened?
19:25The day we crossed the border,
19:27the time we crossed Mexico to America,
19:30we found out that Trump won the election.
19:33What did we do with us?
19:41and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back
19:49to the places from which they came.
19:53In the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's return, arrests surged, deportations
19:59sped up and second chances disappeared. Crossing into the US was no longer the finish line,
20:07just the start of a harsher chapter. Indians now make up the third largest group of undocumented
20:14immigrants in the US, after Mexicans and Salvadorans, according to recent estimates.
20:23Administrative data that is put out by the government estimates total Indian irregular
20:29migration at about 220,000. That's a stock. That's a low number compared to estimates
20:34put out by scholarly and think-tank assessments using demographic modelling, which put it as
20:39high as three quarters of a million.
20:50For 21-year-old Indarjeet from Punjab, it was his fourth attempt in two years. What he didn't
20:57know was what he was walking into.
21:11For most undocumented migrants, crossing into the US isn't an escape. It's a surrender to
21:18the Sikh asylum. And getting found by Border Patrol is the first step to formally request
21:25the protection.
21:57In the United States, ICE, the Immigration and Customs
22:02Enforcement handles everything from detention to deportation.
22:11As of right now, the estimate is that something on the order of 85 to 90 percent of all ICE
22:17facilities are privately owned and run by for-profit prison companies.
22:23The conditions in them, of course, are somewhat opaque.
22:27This is a problem.
22:28It's not a process open even, as you've seen, to members of the U.S. Congress that have
22:33tried to find out.
22:35Bottom line, even though this is not supposed to be a criminal process, it feels deeply punitive.
22:50If it's not going to be a criminal kriege, if it's not going to be a criminal Cause we're
22:57not going to be in prison.
22:58We buy for an old school that makes us a blackout, and we use a green card.
23:29As Inderjeet sat in detention, President Trump called for faster deportations and sealed
23:36borders. His re-election marked a shift. For U.S. officials, the focus was clear. Enforcement.
23:47For the last, the four years before January 20th, we saw huge increases in every other nationality.
23:55India, I think, peaked out in the 80,000 range for, I think it's 2023. So more than we'd ever
24:03seen
24:03before. Well, things are very different at the border today. Since the election of President
24:08Trump January 20th, the numbers are markedly down. But in current conditions now, the endgame is a
24:14return to India or wherever the person may be from. Unknown to Inderjeet, his fate was effectively
24:30decided. February 4th, 2025, a deportation flight takes off for India, and Inderjeet is among
24:39the 104 on board. After a brief layover, Inderjeet realised the plane's destination.
25:09Inderjeet's journey ended where it began, back home in Punjab. But across the state, there
25:17was uproar.
25:23The American Migration Department has reported to us that we are going to go to Delhi for four days.
26:04A process that's in place.
26:07A process that's in place now has been in place for decades.
26:09The difference now is that we're being more successful.
26:12There's been a dramatic reduction in people trying to cross illegally from all over the
26:17world.
26:19But at the heart of America's border politics lies a contradiction.
26:24Undocumented migrants are unwanted, yet essential.
26:29The tight US labor market and the fact that the average American is now moving up the
26:35skill ladder and is unwilling to work for the wages that make American agriculture, American
26:41industry, construction sector, retail sectors efficient and productive means that there
26:48is a lot of demand on the part of US employers for these workers.
26:52Despite the crackdowns, the flow hasn't stopped.
26:57Even after four failed attempts, debt, detention and deportation, Inderjeet hasn't let go.
27:04The obsession lives on.
27:20Once someone is formally deported, their second attempt to illegally enter the United States
27:26results in prosecution on a felony charge.
27:29They could get over a year in jail for that activity.
27:32And then you'll be removed quickly.
27:50American President Donald Trump's deportation flights sent hundreds of undocumented Indian migrants
27:57back, sparking widespread attention across India.
28:03In Pilibit, a small border town in Uttar Pradesh, the crackdown hit home.
28:10Here alone, police have filed 152 cases against agents, and the number keeps rising.
28:19Leading the charge, additional superintendent of police, Vikram Dahir, tracking a global smuggling
28:25web through the lanes of rural India.
28:30Sir, I have 52 books, Sir.
28:33I have 4 sheets.
28:35Sir, I have 5 sheets.
28:36I have 5 sheets.
28:38I have 5 sheets, Sir.
28:39I have 5 sheets, Sir.
28:41I have 5 sheets.
28:41I have 5 sheets.
28:41I have 5 sheets.
28:43I have 5 sheets.
28:43You have made a different performance.
28:46Sir.
28:52Sir.
29:14So, you have to collect all the evidence.
29:16Yes.
29:16So, for that interviews also, they are using lookalikes of the candidates, and they call
29:22them shooters.
29:23So, they are sending these people outside the country without any credentials, without any
29:28financial backups.
29:29So, for the financial part also, they show fake transactions.
29:34As the scale of the scams unravel, ASP Vikram's teams move swiftly, raiding dubious IELTS
29:41centres, tracking down visa agents, and gathering testimonies from families who had been misled.
29:48The good news is, Sir.
29:50I am a friend.
29:51I am a friend.
29:52Come here.
29:53Come here.
29:54Take a seat.
29:55Take your seat.
29:56Take your seat.
29:57Take your seat.
29:58Take your seat.
29:59Take your seat.
29:59Take your seat.
30:00Where do you want to go?
30:02I want to go to England.
30:03England?
30:04England?
30:05Do you want to study or do you want to study?
30:06I want to study.
30:08So, for what was happening in the country?
30:11Who was going to study the file?
30:13Sir.
30:14I thought I was completely aware that this is a giant sir Jagji Singh.
30:17Yes, sir.
30:17It's a drug addiction.
30:18Yes, sir.
30:21Yes, sir.
30:21Which is the Inkylet Center?
30:22Sir, Casper.
30:24Immigration.
30:25Yes, sir.
30:29Yes, sir.
30:30Yes, sir.
30:30That's not true.
30:31It's not true.
30:32You have done it?
30:33No.
30:34Yes, sir.
30:35It's true.
30:35I don't know.
30:35I don't know, sir.
30:36It's true.
30:37It's true.
30:37Yes, sir.
30:40But you haven't given it?
30:41No, sir.
30:42No, sir.
30:44No, sir.
30:45No.
30:47No, sir.
30:48No, sir.
30:49No, sir.
30:49No, no, sir.
30:55No, sir.
30:56No, sir.
30:57No, sir.
30:58No, sir.
30:58Yes, sir.
30:59No, sir.
30:59No, sir.
31:00No, sir.
31:02No, sir.
31:05As Pilibits police close in on cross-border smugglers, they are also working with authorities
31:11in Delhi. Among them, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Usho Ragnani, who's been leading
31:21efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration rackets from Delhi Airport.
31:48DCP Usho's team uncovered a 34 million US dollar racket in Delhi, where thousands of fake
31:56visas and passports were produced in a forgery lab that looked more like a printing press.
32:02This wasn't an isolated case. Law enforcement agencies across India are reporting a surge
32:09in counterfeit travel documents.
32:11If you'll see the kind of ways these people do frauds, they generally arrange fake visas
32:17for these people. Substantial amount of counterfeit equipment just to produce these laminating
32:24sheets, gumming sheets, embossing machines, fake visas and fake passports also. And they
32:29were so sophisticated, when we saw the visas, they were almost similar to the genuine visas.
32:34Different kinds of agents, facilitators, adopt different kinds of means. They have different
32:38modus operandi, to find the loopholes in the immigration system and to fool the agencies.
32:45They are also evolving different patterns also.
32:54One of the many agents adapting to this crackdown is Vir. He once tried to reach the US through
33:01the donkey route and failed. But instead of walking away, he switched sides. Now he's found
33:08a new route and turned his own journey into a business.
33:27The Vir, the real game, starts long before any flight takes off. Beneath the surface of official-looking papers, lies
33:37a shadow economy of passport swaps, identity theft and
33:41insider deals at immigration. In this rare on-camera account, Vir reveals how clients
33:50are matched to someone else's passport and smuggled into distant lands.
34:05But for example, if someone gave us a client, we would take a live photo of the client. And they
34:12see the photo of which passport has been matched.
34:15So if it's a little bit of a match, it's also happening. But it shouldn't happen much. For example, the
34:21person's passport has been matched.
34:24And the person who is sending their turban or bears are more or something else, they have to do the
34:31right.
34:34Then, in Europe, the person who has a passport, they say, they match their passport with a face.
34:40So they get their passport, and they send it to Dubai. They send it to Dubai.
34:46And they send it to Dubai by their passport, which is their personal passport.
34:48He went to Dubai on a number.
34:50We will go to Dubai on the next day,
34:52when we have our setting.
34:55Then, who has a passport from Europe,
34:58fly him on that passport.
35:02He will fly, he will fly to his destination.
35:05There is also a person who is working in the Immigration Department.
35:09He knows that this person is coming first.
35:12He leaves him from the line and leaves him out.
35:15And when he leaves out from the airport,
35:17then our job is finished.
35:21But even the best laid plans go awry.
35:25Hundreds of kilometres away, in Punjab's Bolat,
35:29Bobby is living a parent's worst nightmare.
35:32His son, Sagar, left for Europe,
35:36duped into the donkey route and disappeared.
35:39For the past six months,
35:41Bobby has been seeking for any information about his son.
35:47He was trying to tell his son.
35:50Yes.
35:51Yes.
35:56He's a thief,
36:13he's trying to talk about his
36:33Sagar's mother, Madhubala, waits and fears the worst.
36:46She was 14-15 years old. She said, I'll go out.
36:50She said, I'll go out.
36:57I'll go to my sister and set her up.
37:01She said, I wanted to go to France.
37:04She said, I'll go flat, and go straight.
37:07If you go to France, you'll reach France.
37:11I told them, I'll go south.
37:15We'll go to the other side.
37:17I'll go to the other side.
37:19I'll go to the other side.
37:20They'll go safely.
37:24But they'll go back to the other side.
37:27I'll go down.
37:28I'll go down.
37:35With no answers and no sign of her son,
37:38she holds on to what little hope remains,
37:42choosing not to believe the worst, not yet.
38:08She is the only one who is the worst.
38:39when Bobby's son Sagar disappeared after being duped into the donkey route to
38:44Europe the search began with no clues and nowhere to turn to weeks have turned
38:51into months the family is running out of money the police have filed charges
38:57against the agents yet the investigation has made little progress so Bobby takes
39:03the fight to court in Chandigarh the capital of Punjab traveling nearly two
39:08hundred kilometres from his village determined to bring his son home or at
39:14least uncover the truth
39:44Bobby meets us outside after the session concludes
40:09in cases like Sagar's justice often comes late if at all but Bobby refuses to give up
40:17not just for his son but for those who might come next
40:49list
40:51Four months into life in America, Mohit is undocumented, caught between fear and survival.
40:58His reality is far from the dream he once chased.
41:02Hold up in a small room, he finally makes the call he's been avoiding to his younger brother.
41:19In a cruel twist of fate, America's immigration crackdown has split the Cartier brothers.
41:26Mohit's younger brother now sits in a Texas detention camp, with his deportation confirmed.
41:38He's also crying.
41:40I've been crying.
41:42Nothing. We'll get to see soon.
41:47We'll see.
41:48Private.
41:49What?
41:50We'll get to the GT Mustang.
41:54I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
41:56I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
41:57I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
41:58I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
41:59I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
42:00I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
42:03I'm sorry.
42:06I'm sorry.
42:11I'm sorry.
42:12I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
42:16I'm sorry.
42:18I'm sorry.
42:21I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
42:23You're sorry, I'm sorry.
42:23I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
42:27As deportations rise, the ripple effects are starting to hit the US economy.
42:33Undocumented migrants provide not just labour,
42:36but are also silent contributors to the tax system.
42:40The best estimates have contributions
42:43of undocumented immigrants alone,
42:46on an annual basis of being over $100 billion.
42:51To the extent that Indian irregular migrants
42:53constitute about 10% of that overall number,
42:56put that at about $10 billion on a proportionate basis.
43:00It should also be remembered
43:02that much of that contribution is through taxes.
43:05The average undocumented immigrant
43:07is estimated to pay $9,000 a year in taxes alone.
43:14Undocumented Indian migrants
43:16are part of the invisible workforce,
43:18keeping industries running
43:20in agriculture, construction and logistics.
43:27States like Oklahoma and Nebraska,
43:29big agricultural states, but also states like Michigan
43:32and Wisconsin and Minnesota,
43:34largely old industrial states.
43:37New Jersey has had a long historic Indian diaspora,
43:41and that has been largely in the retail, hotel, gas station sector.
43:46U.S. Customs and Border Protection data
43:49shows illegal crossings rose from under 1 million in 2019
43:53to over 2 million in 2022.
43:56However, in the first half of 2025,
43:59the numbers fell to their lowest on record.
44:05That summer also saw numerous immigration raids in Los Angeles,
44:10sparking protests across 35 U.S. cities.
44:13There's a growing unrest,
44:16and immigrant communities are pushing back against the crackdowns.
44:20An estimated 13.3 million undocumented immigrants
44:24now face the risk of deportation,
44:27and ICE raids show no signs of slowing down.
44:35Mohit arrived knowing he'd be undocumented.
44:38What he didn't know is how long he'd remain in limbo
44:42after losing contact with his agent.
45:07What began as a chase for a better life
45:10has turned into a life of hiding and regret.
45:15What he did not notice of the war?
45:17How many of the people are afraid of this wall on this wall?
45:18How many of the people are raising this wall?
45:20How many of the people are raising this wall?
45:20Because in the situation,
45:22the situation is going on the same thing.
45:23The wall is holding the wall back,
45:25and the wall is not making anything.
45:29It is a lot of risk,
45:31but the wall has been taken over the wall.
45:33But this wall has been found
45:33that we were from thewin to America.
45:37After here,
45:38it was a point that,
45:39the view has changed the life of this wall.
45:42But there was no way of this wall.
45:44across the world thousands of migrants continue to risk crossing continents for
45:51a future in a country that may no longer want them anymore
45:56the route is illegal the demand is real and the system around it never stops
46:18you
46:23yeah
46:24yeah
46:35I'll see you next time.
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