An article in Monday's San Jose, CA Mercury-News [Illegal emigres defy the image: Fastest growing source? It's India, by Mike Swift, February 18, 2008] offers some startling numbers regarding illegal aliens from India. For example, the ubiquitous Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Trust estimates that the number of "illegal Indians" in the U.S. is about 400,000.

Of course, Indian immigrants and illegal aliens cluster heavily in technical professions and are among the most abundant holders of H-1B visas. So we'll leave it to VDARE's Rob Sanchez (see Rob's blog entries here) to comment on that aspect of this apparently burgeoning phenomenon.

What leapt off the page at me was a passage near the end of the article describing the dynamics of "illegal Indians" who aren't on H-1Bs:

Another source is relatives from India who arrive for a visit on a tourist visa and never go home.

"America is a very attractive country; everybody who comes here wants to stay," said Shah Peerally, a Silicon Valley immigration lawyer. "I can tell you right now, there are nearly 1 billion people in India, of which maybe 800 million want to come here."

Of course, once 100 million (say) have come, the remaining 700 million may decide things don't look so attractive over here any more.