Amritsar: A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal immigrants from various states landed here 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 them, 33 each are from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh, sources said.
Nineteen women and 13 minors, including a 4-year-old boy and two girls aged five and seven years, were among the deportees, they said.
The C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US Air Force landed at the Amritsar airport at 1:55 pm. The US action came just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington to hold wide-ranging talks with President Donald Trump.
The deportees were 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.
Around 6:45 pm the deportees from Punjab were taken to their respective hometowns in police vehicles after completion of all formalities. Similarly, illegal immigrants from Haryana were taken by the state police to their native places, sources said.
They also said that arrangements were made by the state governments concerned to take the deportees to their native places. None of the deportees spoke to the media.
There was heavy barricading outside the airport and police personnel were deployed in large numbers.
Except for an Amritsar-based man, who came for his grandson, none of the family members of other deportees showed up at the airport. He, however, refused to talk to reporters at the airport and seemed miffed by the volley of questions.
Earlier, media reports claimed that the US military plane was carrying 205 illegal immigrants.
Among the illegal immigrants hailing from Punjab, six were 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.
Family members of the illegal immigrants from Punjab said they took huge loans to send the youths to America hoping for a bright future but now feel it is impossible to break free from the crushing debt.
They alleged that the travel agents adopted unfair means to facilitate the youths’ travel to the US without their knowledge. They now seek strict action against those agents.
Hours after the US military aircraft landed at the airport, Punjab NRI Affairs minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention, urging him to speak to his “friend” US President Donald Trump regarding the deportation of Indians.
Dhaliwal also spoke to some of the deportees hailing from Punjab at the airport.
Addressing the media, Dhaliwal said a total of 104 Indians have been deported from the US and out of them 30 were from Punjab. “It was a long flight. All are healthy and fine; they had their meal,” he said.
“Paperwork of deportees hailing from Punjab was done in the first batch. Thereafter, the immigration process of those from Haryana, Gujarat and other states will be carried out,” the minister said.
Describing the deportation of illegal Indians from the US as a “very serious” issue, Dhaliwal, said, “We all know that PM Modi used to say that ‘Trump is my friend’. He even campaigned for Trump during the 2019 US elections. These are international issues and can be discussed and resolved at that level.”
“I urge PM Modi that the sword of deportation and jail is hanging on the heads of many Indians and he should hold their hands. He should sit with Trump and find a solution to this issue.”
Senior Punjab BJP leader Harjit Singh Grewal asked Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to make arrangements for the resettlement and employment of those from the state who have been deported by the US government.
He also demanded strict action against the travel agents who sent the youths to the US through “donkey routes” and other illegal means by taking lakhs of rupees from them.
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.
PTI
