Washington: At least 68 Indian nationals have been taken into custody at a detention center near Seattle in the US state of Washington for allegedly crossing into the country illegally, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department has said.

Of them, about half were detained in the last one month while they tried to sneak illegally into the United States from across the border, said Satnam Singh Chahal, the director of US-based North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) that obtained the information from the ICE.