NEW DELHI: A group of 116 illegal Indian immigrants were deported from the United States and arrived at Amritsar airport on Saturday night via a C-17 aircraft. One of the deportees, Daljit Singh from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district, reported they were handcuffed and had their legs chained during the journey back to India.
“Our legs were chained and hands were also cuffed,” Singh told reporters in Hoshiarpur.
Singh revealed he had entered the US through the ‘donkey route’ – an illegal and dangerous pathway used by migrants.
His wife Kamalpreet Kaur stated that a travel agent had deceived her husband. The agent, arranged through a village contact, had promised a direct legal flight to the US but instead transported him through multiple locations.
This was the second batch of Indians to be deported under the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
The deportees underwent immigration and background checks upon arrival. Those from Punjab were transported to their homes in police vehicles around 4:30 am Sunday, while the Haryana government arranged transportation for deportees from their state.
Many deportees from the first batch that arrived on February 5 had similar stories. They sought better lives for their families in the US but were duped by agents and were caught at the US border.
The recent batch included 65 people from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, two each from Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
Most of the deportees were between 18 and 30 years old.
Sources indicated that a third plane carrying 157 deportees was expected to land at Amritsar airport on Sunday.
The flight landed at approximately 11:35 pm on Saturday, marking another significant deportation event in the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration by US authorities.