NEW DELHI: US authorities doubled down on the deportation of 104 Indian nationals with the border patrol chief releasing a video that showed Indian nationals, handcuffed and shackled, being hustled into a C-17 military aircraft.
Asked why a military aircraft was used to deport Indians, a US embassy spokesperson, without going into details of the flight, said it was the policy of US to faithfully execute the immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens. In the first two weeks of President Trump’s return, while dozens of non-military flights were used to deport illegal migrants, only six such military flights – to Honduras, Ecuador, Peru and Guatemala – were used for the same purpose.
“The US Border Patrol and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport. This mission underscored our commitment to enforcing immigration laws and ensuring swift removals. If you cross illegally, you will be removed,” USBP chief Michael Banks said in a post on X. The embassy spokesperson here also said enforcing US immigration laws was critically important to national security and public safety of the country.
While foreign minister S Jaishankar said in response to clarifications sought in Parliament that India was aware about the flight that landed in Amritsar and had provided it necessary clearances, a few central and South American countries have complained that they were notified about deportation flights only after takeoff. Brazil also lodged a protest with US for the “flagrant” violation of the rights of its citizens.
India has accepted illegal immigrants from US every year since 2009 after verifying their Indian origin. Modi govt accepted more than 6,000 nationals from the US during the first Trump administration. However, the in-your-face spectacle that accompanied what was the first deportation flight to India under Trump 2.0 will be of concern to India, not least because it occurred days before PM Modi lands in Washington for a bilateral summit with Trump.