US authorities arrested 538 migrants and deported hundreds of “illegal immigrants” on Thursday in a large-scale operation, days after President Donald Trump began his second term, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Leavitt said on X, “The Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals including a suspected terrorist, four members of the Tren de Aragua gang, and several illegals convicted of sex crimes against minors.”
Poll
How Should India Handle the Return of Citizens Staying Illegally Abroad?
“The Trump administration also deported hundreds of illegal immigrants using military aircraft,” Leavitt added. She described the operation as “the largest massive deportation operation in history.”
The Pentagon plans to use US Air Force C-17s and C-130s to deport around 5,400 people currently detained by Customs and Border Protection over the next few weeks, as per media reports.
During his campaign, Trump promised stricter measures on illegal immigration. On his first day in office after taking oath, he signed executive orders declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border, which borders Mexico. The US president announced the deployment of additional troops, and pledged to deport “criminal aliens.”
In Newark, a city in US state of New Jersey, immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents conducted a raid, detaining undocumented individuals and some US citizens, according to city mayor Ras J Baraka. He said the agents did not produce a warrant and described the detention of a US military veteran as unconstitutional.
An ICE update on X confirmed “538 arrests” and “373 detainers lodged.”
New Jersey Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim expressed concern over the Newark raid. In a joint statement, they said, “Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics.”
The Trump administration announced plans to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy, requiring asylum seekers at the southern border to stay in Mexico while their applications are processed. It also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving many stranded on the Mexican side of the border.
Earlier in the week, the Republican-led Congress approved a bill to expand pretrial detention for foreign criminal suspects.
Trump has described illegal migration as “poisoning the blood” of the nation, a statement criticized by opponents as having historical associations with Nazi Germany.
Meanwhile, external affairs minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, in a press conference after a meeting with US secretary of state Marco Rubio in Washington, said that India is open to the return of undocumented Indian nationals from the United States.
Speaking to reporters, Jaishankar had said, “We have always taken the view that if there are any of our citizens who are not here legally, if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been, you know, open to their legitimate return to India.” He said that this has been India’s consistent position with all countries.
According to the Pew Research Center, Indians, numbering 725,000, were the third-largest group of unauthorized immigrants in the US in 2022, following Mexico and El Salvador.