West Bengal Starts ‘Holding Centres’ For Illegal Immigrants, Suvendu Adhikari Pushes ‘Detect, Delete, Deport’

West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari's government has started acting on its poll pledge to deal with alleged illegal migration by creating “holding centres” for “illegal foreigners”, a plan that mirrors former United States President Donald Trump's promise to deport large numbers of undocumented immigrants through expanded detention facilities.

District magistrates across West Bengal have been asked to identify space and establish secure “holding centres” where detained foreign nationals will stay before deportation or repatriation, shifting the state's immigration handling approach and placing immediate focus on people held for allegedly entering or living in India without valid permission.

Illegal foreigners holding centres and 'detect, delete and deport’ policy

The foreigners' branch of the home and hill affairs department issued a directive on May 23 instructing district magistrates to arrange such facilities for “apprehended foreigners” and “released foreign prisoners” until their cases are processed, aligning with a broader “detect, delete and deport” approach announced by Suvendu Adhikari earlier.

The instruction also drew attention to an advisory issued by the Union home ministry in May last year, which laid down procedures for handling Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas found staying in India without authorisation, and asked district authorities to coordinate their actions with these central guidelines.

Explaining the requirement, the order stated: “In this connection, it is requested to take initiative/appropriate action for setting up of Holding Centres in the district for apprehended foreigners as well as for the released foreign prisoners awaiting deportation/repatriation.”

Officials told news agency PTI that the proposed holding centres would function as temporary facilities for those detained over suspected irregular stay, and for foreigners whose deportation paperwork is pending, reflecting a more formal process for housing such individuals instead of relying only on regular prisons or police stations.

Under instructions issued by the Centre, persons suspected of crossing into India without permission may stay in such holding centres for as long as 30 days while authorities verify identity documents and nationality, after which district magistrates or equivalent officers will decide whether the person is an Indian citizen or a foreign national.

Illegal foreigners politics, BSF role and 'detect, delete and deport' debate

The Bharatiya Janata Party had made alleged illegal infiltration a central point during the recently concluded West Bengal assembly election campaign, and Suvendu Adhikari later confirmed that state police would hand detained infiltrators directly to the Border Security Force for deportation instead of sending every case through longer court procedures.

Earlier, in January this year, then chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee accused the Border Security Force of aiding cross-border movement from Bangladesh, claiming there was a “central government blueprint” behind it and saying, “The border is not guarded by TMC or police; it is guarded by BSF. They are facilitating infiltration, allowing criminals to cross the border, commit murders, and escape.”

Illegal immigration has also remained at the core of Trump's politics in the United States, where the 2024 election campaign featured repeated references to mass deportation, with Trump promising what was described as the largest drive against undocumented migrants in American history, a message that played strongly with voters concerned about border control.

The Trump administration relied heavily on the US immigration and customs enforcement agency to carry out that agenda, increasing the number of immigrants held in detention and allocating billions of dollars to expand converted warehouse compounds that functioned as immigrant detention centres, comparable in concept to the holding centres now proposed in Bengal.

In July last year, ICE brought in a policy stating that any immigrant crossing the border without permission could face mandatory detention and remain in custody without a bond hearing, effectively giving ICE legal cover to detain large numbers of people for uncertain periods without allowing them to challenge the basis for their detention.

Rights groups in the United States argued that these ICE practices damaged free speech, reduced due process protections and created an environment of fear among immigrant communities, while Trump maintained that firm enforcement was necessary to cut illegal immigration and protect domestic security, sharpening debate over how states should manage border control.

While the Bengal BJP government's holding centre proposal and the United States model share similarities in temporary detention and focus on deportation, the West Bengal effort is still at an early stage, and many details of how the “detect, delete and deport” pledge will function in practice have not yet been clarified, according to officials, with inputs from agencies.