Border Security and Illegal Migration under the Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025

The passage of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, acts as a paradigm shift in the attitudes of the Indian government towards border security and human mobility: the state turns out to be colonial-era policing and transforms into a modernized structure of biometric sovereignty. In this paper, the legal, technological, and socio-political aspects of the new law are reviewed in detail. It examines the legal authorization of the Bureau of Immigration and the compulsory implementation of the Integrated Immigration Management System (IIMS), which jointly digitalizes entry-exit regulations and the expansion of the surveillance system of the state, with new institutional reporting requirements. Additionally, the paper examines the increased punishment levels imposed on smuggling syndicates under the Act, the increase in compliance pressure on the corporate community, and the systematization of a lean deportation system. Although this study acknowledges the technological effectiveness of AI-powered so-called smart fences and predictive surveillance in preventing unlawful crossings, it is important to note that the Act has a dual character: it strengthens national security and legalizes the use of selective humanitarianism through the 2025 Exemption Order. Finally, the article suggests that in spite of the success of the centralization of enforcement, the framework unveils a deep-seated issue of a refugee gap and raises significant constitutional concerns on the privacy of data and international human rights, and this clearly demonstrates that there is a pressing need to codify a domestic asylum law, given the impending climate-driven migration.