Vineeta Rao
Auckland, February 9, 2025
Even as Washington DC and New Delhi prepare for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with President Donald Trump, a United States military jet carrying 104 illegal Indian migrants landed at Amritsar Airport in Punjab.
This is a part of the 47th US President’s crackdown on illegal immigrants. The deported migrants were from different states with at least 33 from Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
While the new administration has targeted overstayers and detainees of all nationalities, India is the furthest destination so far for deportation flights.
The Indian government has not protested the deportation.
Last month, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “For Indians, not just in the United States but anywhere in the world, if they are Indian nationals, and they are overstaying or they are in a particular country without proper documentation, we will take them back, provided documents are shared with us so that we can verify their nationality that they are indeed Indians.”
The group contained 33 deportees from Gujarat and Haryana, 30 from Punjab, two passengers from Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh, and three from Maharashtra. There are at least 25 women and 12 minors in that group of deportees, with the youngest child being only four years old. At least 30 of the Gujarati and Punjabi undocumented migrants were detained at the Mexico-US border as they allegedly tried to enter the US amid stricter border control under the new administration.
They reportedly paid agents between $6000 to $200,000 to reach the US.
The illegal immigration route, popularly called ‘Dunki’ (a person hopping from place to place like a donkey a depicted in a Hindi movie starring Shahrukh Khan. It involves often dangerous travel through multiple countries and multiple modes of transport.
More deportations to follow
Officials admit this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as illegal migration is concerned.
The topic of deportation has been a behind-the-scenes topic of conversation between the state departments of both countries for a while now.
Bloomberg reported that nearly 18,000 Indian migrants were identified for deportation last year. This is not the first time that former President Biden repatriated more than 1100 Indian migrants in 2023-2024. It is unlikely to be the last as a Pew Center Report estimates more than 750,000 undocumented Indians live in the United States, making them the third largest ethnic group of illegal migrants after the Mexicans and Salvadorans.
Media reports indicate that 3% of all illegal US border crossings in 2024 involved Indians.
Treatment of illegal immigrants
In India, stories of the deportees being treated poorly are emerging.
Several have alleged being shackled or handcuffed for the repatriation flight.
These claims were borne out by a video released by the United States Border Patrol, showing Indian deportees handcuffed and leg-shackled. However, some social media posts said that these pictures related deportees to Mexico.
India’s External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said this was not true.
He told Indian Parliament that the use of restraints was a US Standard Operating Procedure. He assured them that New Delhi was working in close conjunction with Washington DC to ensure that all Indian citizens were being treated well.
“India has been informed by ICE that women and children were not restrained. Further, the needs of deportees, including during transit, related to food and other necessities, including possible medical emergencies, were attended to. During toilet breaks, deportees were temporarily unrestrained if needed in that regard,” he said.
Reactions in India
However, this explanation did not satisfy the Opposition, some of them saying that the US could have just handed over the deportees to the Indian Embassy instead of shackling them.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the US had to deport illegal immigrants but was not happy that they were transported back to their homeland in a military plane.
“So these are Indians and they are in another country without authorisation; then India has a legal obligation to take them back. But I believe it would have been better for the US to have sent these people on a regular commercial flight, or if necessary, on a civilian charter, than doing so on a military aircraft. That I think is what is a new contribution by Mr Trump’s administration. That implies something else that I would not have been as happy to welcome. But having said that, on the question of Indian citizens being brought back to India, definitely that is where they belong. They should be back at home. And if they wish to travel abroad, they should go through only through legal means. I don’t think that anybody can disagree with that proposition,” he said in a Statement.
The Brazilian government refused to allow the military aircraft to land in Bogota but sent civilian aircraft to bring 88 illegal immigrations back home, saying, ‘Our citizens deserve to be brought home with dignity and honoured.
“They were treated like criminals, which we protest,” President Gustavo Petro said.
India, perhaps to keep legal pathways to immigration open as well as avoid punitive tariffs threatened by President Trump, is working closely with the US government to identify and repatriate undocumented migrants.
Focus on rogue agents
The return of undocumented immigrants has thrown a spotlight again on the vast network of touts, agents and desperate potential migrants who look West to fulfil their hopes and dreams. Many State governments, sympathetic to the plight of the deportees, or perhaps fearful of the potential backlash, have made offers of help to the deportees. Many took loans or sold family agricultural land in order to pay agents and touts.
The opposition has been swift to capitalise on the situation and demand the steps that the government will take to redress their grievances.
The Police have spoken to the deportees before they were dispatched by private passenger flights to their various home states. They are also on the lookout for Charanjit Singh, the alleged mastermind of the human smuggling network between India and destination countries like the US and Canada. His accomplice Bharat ‘Bobby’ Patel was taken into custody last year with 55 fake passports in his possession. Mr Singh, who is allegedly a US citizen, fled the country last year and was reportedly operating out of Delhi.
Hindustan Times Reports
In February 2024, Jaspal Singh (36) left his home in Punjab’s Fatehgarh Churian, dreaming of a fresh start in the US. He had put everything on the line: his savings, his trust and the hope of a better future. He was one of 104 illegal Indian migrants arriving, their hopes dashed and futures uncertain for now.
“I had an agreement with an agent to travel to America legally with a proper visa, but I was deceived. I paid him ₹30 lakh (about $60,000) and lost all the money. I first travelled from Punjab to Europe, and then to Brazil, taking the Dunki route. It took six months,” he told PTI.
Mr Singh said that he was in the USA for only 11 days, all in detention after being arrest while crossing the border in January 2025.
“I had no idea that I was being sent back to India. When they put me on the flight, I thought they were taking me to another detention centre. Later, an officer told me that we were going back to India,” he said.
He said that he was tightly restrained with handcuffs and shackles during the journey back home and that they were removed after landing. Instead of opportunity, he faced detention and deportation, returning with ₹30 lakh ($60,000) lost and his dreams shattered.
Vineeta Rao is an Indian Newslink Reporter based in Auckland.
