On Wednesday afternoon, a U.S military aircraft is scheduled to touch down at Shri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport in Amritsar with 205 Indian migrants, including 33 from Gujarat. Under President Donald Trump’s administration, the C-17 aircraft, which took off from San Antonio, Texas, was a component of the US government’s campaign against illegal immigration.
Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav affirmed that the state administration is getting ready to accept the migrants who were deported. To make their arrival easier, counters will be positioned at the airport.
Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who expressed regret over the US decision, stated, “These individuals contributed to the US economy and should have been granted permanent residency instead of being deported”.
He pointed out that a large number of Indians were illegal immigrants when their work permits expired. In order to address the issues of Punjabis residing in the United States, Dhaliwal also declared his plan to meet with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar the next week.
33 of the 205 deported people are Gujarati. Twelve people from each of the districts of Mehsana and Gandhinagar are the state’s largest deportees. Four from Surat, two from Ahmedabad, and one each from Vadodara, Kheda, and Patan make up the remaining group.
Nine deportees from Gandhinagar district have been identified: Mayra and Rishita Patel from Garden City, Kalol; Baldev Chaudhary from Bapupura, Mansa; Karansingh Gohil, Mittalben Gohil, and Heyan Gohil from Boru, Mansa; Ketan Darji from Khoraj; and Preksha Prajapati from Prajapati Vas, Pethapur.
Since Trump took office again, this is the first group of illegal Indian immigrants to be deported.
According to a representative for the US embassy in Delhi, “The United States is removing illegal migrants, tightening immigration laws, and vigorously enforcing its border.” These acts make it quite evident that the risk of illegal migration is not worth it.
US law enforcement agencies have increased deportations in response to President Trump’s directives; prior flights have sent migrants to Guatemala, Peru, and Honduras. For more than 5,000 migrants held in detention in San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas, the Pentagon has started planning deportation flights.
A single military flight to Guatemala last week cost about $4,675 per migrant, making military deportation flights far more costly than those run by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records, 20,407 illegal Indians were either in jail or facing final deportation orders as of November 2024. Of these, 2,467 are being held in jail as part of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), while 17,940 are subject to final removal orders but are not in custody.
Indians make up the largest Asian group in ICE detention and the fourth largest group by nationality.
India has declared its readiness to take in deported people once their nationality has been confirmed. “Illegal immigration is often linked to other unlawful activities,” stated External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month. It is not good for our reputation, nor is it desirable. We are open to their legitimate repatriation to India if any of our people are discovered to be in the US unlawfully and their citizenship is confirmed.
Trump said India “will do what is right” when it comes to deporting illegal migrants after speaking with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the phone on January 27.
India’s opposition to illegal immigration because of its connections to organized crime has been reaffirmed by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). On January 24, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We will take them back provided documents are shared with us so that we can verify their nationality, that they are indeed Indians.”
It is anticipated that Punjab Police will look into the deported people’s methods of entry into the United States, their travel routes, and the people who helped them along the way. According to reports, a big number of Punjabi migrants paid high prices to enter the US illegally using “donkey routes.”
Dhaliwal advised Punjabis to obtain education and skills in order to legitimately access possibilities abroad and urged them to refrain from traveling there illegally.
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