Amritsar- A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal immigrants from various states landed here on Wednesday, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Trump government as part of a crackdown it resolved to carry out when it was sworn in last month.
Of the deportees, 33 each are from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh, sources said.
The deportees included 19 women and 13 minors, they said.
The US action comes just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington to hold wide-ranging talks with President Donald Trump.
The C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US Air Force landed at the Amritsar airport at 1:55 pm. There was heavy barricading outside the airport and police personnel were deployed in large numbers.
All the deportees were being questioned inside the airport terminal building by different government agencies, including the Punjab Police, and various state and central intelligence agencies to check if they have any criminal record.
The deportees are expected to be allowed to go to their homes following verification and background checks even though there has been no official word about it yet.
Earlier, media reports claimed that the US military plane was carrying 205 illegal immigrants.
Among the illegal immigrants hailing from Punjab, six are from Kapurthala, five from Amritsar, four each from Patiala and Jalandhar, two each from Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, SBS Nagar and one each from Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Sangrur, SAS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib, sources said.
According to them, arrangements have been made by the state governments concerned to take the deportees to their hometowns.
An Amritsar-based elderly man, who came for his grandson, refused to talk to the media outside the airport.
Talking to PTI videos in the Mohali district, family members of Pradeep, who is among the deportees who landed at the Amritsar airport, demanded that the Bhagwant Mann government repay the debts they incurred to send the youth to the US.
They claimed that they had to sell their land and take Rs 20-25 lakh loan to send the youth to the US for a brighter future. But since he has been deported, the family members demanded that either the Mann dispensation provides them fiancial assistance to repay their debt or give the youth a government job.
Meanwhile, the Congress expressed sadness over “pictures of Indians getting handcuffed and humiliated” while being deported from the US and recalled that America had to express regret over the treatment meted out to India diplomat Devyani Khobragade in 2013 after the then UPA government retaliated sharply.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said the media kerfuffle over the deportation of illegal Indian migrants from the United States obscures a few facts.
“This is not the first such planeload, nor is it directly related to the ascent of @realDonaldTrump. There were 1,100 Indians deported in the previous fiscal year (ending September 2024), under Biden, not Trump. As of 2022, there were 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US — the third-largest group, outnumbered only by nationals of Mexico and El Salvador, he said.
“Since October 2020, US Customs and Border Protection officials have detained nearly 170,000 Indian migrants attempting to cross the border illegally from either Canada or Mexico. They are all subject to deportation,” Tharoor said.
After Donald Trump assumed office as the US President last month, the country’s law enforcement agencies have launched a crackdown against illegal immigrants. Many Indians, who entered the US through “donkey routes” or other illegal means by spending lakhs of rupees, are now facing deportation.
Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said on Tuesday that the state government would receive the immigrants and set up counters at the airport.
Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal had expressed disappointment over the US government’s decision and said these individuals, who contributed to that country’s economy, should have been granted permanent residency instead of being deported.
He said many Indians entered the US on work permits which later expired, making them illegal immigrants. The minister said he plans to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar next week to discuss the concerns and interests of Punjabis living in the US.
Dhaliwal had also appealed to Punjabis not to travel abroad using illegal means, emphasising the importance of acquiring skills and education to access opportunities worldwide.
He encouraged people to research legal ways and acquire education and language skills before travelling abroad.
Families claim ignorance about how their kin landed in US
Family members of illegal immigrants from Gujarat who were deported from the US have claimed they do not know how their kin reached the foreign soil.
Former deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel expressed sympathy for the deported Gujaratis, underlining the fact that they had gone to the foreign country looking for a job or career, and they should not be portrayed as criminals.
A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed at Amritsar in Punjab in the afternoon. Sources said that 33 of the 104 deportees are from Gujarat.
The majority of them are from Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Patan, Vadodara and Kheda districts, sources said. They are expected to reach their native places on Thursday.
Kanubhai Patel, whose daughter is among the deportees, claimed she had gone to Europe for a vacation with her friends a month ago.
“I have no idea what she planned after reaching Europe. The last time we talked with her was January 14. We have no idea how she reached the US,” said Patel, a resident of Chandranagar-Dabhla village in Mehsana district.
Another deportee belongs to Luna village of Vadodara district. Her uncle Pravin Patel told reporters that she left for the US a month ago.
“She lives nearby, in the same village. She got married a year ago and went to the US last month. We only know that she has been deported. We don’t know the reason behind her deportation,” he said.
BJP leader Nitin Patel said these deportees should not be harassed after their return to the state.
“I sympathise with every person who has been deported from the US. They went there to build their career, do a job or set up their business. Gujarati immigrants in the US are known for living peacefully and they never break any law. I urge the media to show some sympathy towards them….don’t portray them as criminals,” the former deputy CM told reporters at his residence here.
“They were living in the US for quite some time. They were not caught at the border. They are being sent back just because they don’t have some permissions. I urge the state government to see to it that they are not harassed, and also help them upon their arrival here,” said Patel.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, CID-Crime, Parikshita Rathod said the police will not question the deportees at this stage.
In the past, Gujarat Police have taken action against immigration agents for sending people to the US and Canada through illegal means.
In 2022, a family from Dingucha village in Gandhinagar froze to death while trying to illegally enter the United States from Canada.
Jagdish Patel, his wife and their two children died, apparently due to exposure to the extreme cold amid a blizzard, on the US-Canada border in January 2022.
Later, police arrested three agents — Yogesh Patel, Bhavesh Patel and Dashrath Chaudhary — in the case. Probe revealed that the accused had sent seven others to Canada through the same network.
In December 2022, Brijkumar Yadav, hailing from Kalol town of Gandhinagar, died during an unsuccessful bid to cross the US-Mexico border wall, also known as `the Trump Wall’.
According to Gandhinagar Police, Yadav worked as an accountant, and had kept the other family members in the dark about his US immigration plans before leaving with wife Puja and three-year-old son Tanmay.
As per news reports, he died after a fall while scaling the border wall, while his wife and the son suffered severe injuries.
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