From Anarchy To Accountability: Why Immigration And Foreigners Bill, 2025 Is A Revolutionary Leap For India

For too long, India’s borders were treated as a political bargaining chip rather than a sovereign responsibility.

The Immigration and Foreigners Bill, 2025 is not just a legislative update—it’s an indictment of the systemic negligence that allowed illegal immigration to become a crisis. And those who presided over the mess, now crying foul, have no moral high ground to stand on. The Bill consolidates and modernizes India’s immigration framework, ending the legal patchwork that allowed illegal infiltration to grow.

The Foreigners Act (1946) and Passport Act (1920) were relics of British rule, yet they remained untouched for decades after independence. This lack of update exacerbated the situation, leading to ignorance toward the influx of illegal migrants.

The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 (IMDT Act) was the ultimate proof of this rot. Crafted not to protect borders but to shield a vote bank, it reversed the burden of proof, making deportation nearly impossible. The numbers don’t lie:

• From 1962–1984, 300,000 illegal immigrants were deported under the Foreigners Act.

• Under the IMDT Act (1983–2005), a pitiful 1,517 were removed.

The IMDT Act uniquely placed the burden of proof on the state to deport illegal immigrants, rendering the process toothless. The result? Assam’s demographics shifted irreversibly. The Muslim population surged from 24.68% (1951) to 34.22% (2011), creating four Muslim-majority districts.

The Immigration and Foreigners Bill, 2025 doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It acknowledges that laws mean nothing without enforcement. Penalizing carriers (₹2–5 lakh fines) and mandating biometric checks aren’t draconian—they’re basic governance.

The passage of the Immigration and Foreigners Bill, 2025 marks a watershed moment in India’s approach to border control, national security, and immigration governance. After decades of ad-hoc policies and colonial-era laws that were either exploited or ignored, this legislation finally provides a coherent framework to regulate the entry, stay, and exit of foreigners.

Some voices are now lamenting the Bill as a harsh measure. Those now decrying the Bill’s “lack of humanitarianism” did nothing to reform the Foreigners Act or the Registration of Foreigners Act. Where was their concern when the IMDT Act created a two-tier system, subjecting Assam to laxer rules than the rest of India? Why were there no protests when the Supreme Court condemned the Act as “the biggest hurdle in deportation” in 2005?

The Bill’s critics now champion “humanitarian exceptions,” yet they presided over a system where fake documents were easier to obtain than legal ones, and deportation tribunals languished understaffed for decades.

The Immigration and Foreigners Bill, 2025 has exposed a peculiar paradox: the louder certain politicians lament the “death of academic freedom” and “restriction of talent,” the more they reveal their own detachment from ground realities.

The claim spearheaded by the Trinamool Congress’ Saugata Roy—that stricter immigration rules will cripple India’s academia and healthcare—is laughable. For one, the Bill explicitly introduces Startup Visas, Skilled Talent Visas, and Business Visa Plus categories to attract high-value professionals in fields like AI and renewable energy. Yet, critics like Roy pretend these provisions don’t exist. Why? Because acknowledging them would unravel their narrative that India is “closing its doors.”

The reality is starkly different. The sudden concern for “foreign know-how” conveniently ignores that India produces more STEM graduates annually than the U.S. and EU combined. Our doctors, engineers, and scientists are globally sought-after.

While they talk about foreign talent rescuing our academia and medicine, they conveniently ignore India’s 1.4 billion citizens producing world-class doctors, engineers, and scientists. These are the same people who have their own minds in the West and are motivated to import Western political debate without paying attention to the Indian context.

The reality: in West Bengal, fake voter IDs tied to Bangladeshi nationals have swung elections. In Kerala, raids in 2025 uncovered syndicates smuggling Bangladeshis into construction jobs under forged papers.

The Bill’s biometric mandates and carrier fines disrupt these rackets—hence the manufactured hysteria. The illegal immigrants in India, often entering via porous borders, primarily engage in low-wage labor, smuggling, and even voter fraud—not academia or medicine—and compete for jobs meant for our citizens.

These migrants, facilitated by fake documents and local networks, strain resources and security. The proposed Bill aims to curb such illegal entry, not “talent.” To this end, the Bill establishes the Bureau of Immigration, which will leverage regional and local officers responsible for registering and managing foreigners to oversee immigration operations nationwide.

The critics offer no alternatives beyond fearmongering. They invoke “global standards” while opposing the very mechanisms—like biometric tracking, visa compliance, and deportations—that define those standards elsewhere.

Their selective humanism extends to illegal migrants but not to Indian border communities strained by unchecked influxes. This Bill reflects a commitment toward India’s sovereignty, economic interests, and security. The Bill establishes that national security is paramount.

It is surely a definitive step toward ending India’s era of immigration anarchy. It replaces ambiguity with structure, negligence with accountability, and political expediency with national interest.