“We were treated like criminals. Our hands were cuffed, our legs were chained throughout the flight. We were only freed when we landed in India,” said Jaspal Singh, one of the 104 Indians deported from the United States on Wednesday. Additionally, this marks the first such mass deportation under the Donald Trump administration, which took charge last month and promised to act against undocumented immigrants.
The deportees, brought in a US military aircraft, stated they had no idea they were being sent back until they were put on the plane. “They didn’t tell us anything. We thought we were being taken to another detention camp. Then, a police officer informed us that we were being deported,” Singh recalled. Among the deportees, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh, according to the media reports. The group also included 19 women and 13 minors, with the youngest being a four-year-old boy and two girls aged five and seven.
The arrival of the deportees comes just ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s scheduled visit to Washington, where he is set to hold wide-ranging discussions with Trump. The Punjab government has sought the Prime Minister’s intervention in the matter. Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who met some of the returnees at the airport, criticized the deportation and urged Modi to discuss the issue with his “friend” Trump. “Modi ji had once said ‘Trump is my friend.’ Now, when Indians are being deported in such a manner, he should intervene and protect their interests,” Dhaliwal said.
Meanwhile, Punjab BJP leader Harjit Singh Grewal demanded that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann arrange for the rehabilitation and employment of those sent back. He also pressed for a crackdown on travel agents who illegally send people abroad through the “donkey route” and other fraudulent methods. At Amritsar airport, tight security arrangements were in place, with heavy barricading and a strong police presence. The deportees were questioned by multiple agencies, including Punjab Police and central intelligence units, to verify if any had criminal records.
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