CHANDIGARH: A US air force aircraft carrying 104 Indian immigrants from different states landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump dispensation as part of the crackdown against illegal immigration in that country.
Of the deportees, 33 each are from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh, sources said. The deportees include 19 women and 13 minors.
The US action comes just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington.
The C-17 Globemaster landed at the Amritsar airport at 1.55 pm, where a posse of police personnel were deployed, flanked by some anxious relatives of those who were sent back.
All deportees were questioned inside the airport by government agencies, including officials from Ministry of External Affairs and Home Affairs. Arrangements were being made to send all deportees to their homes following background checks, an official said.
Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal, who met some deportees at the airport, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene on behalf of Indians facing deportation in the US.
Jaspal Singh from Hardorawal in Gurdaspur reached home late in the evening and told local television channels that he had paid `30 lakh to an agent to reach the US, who took 5 months to send him there. “The agent told me he would send me legally but he used the donkey route,” he said.