CHANDIGARH: Around 119 Indians are expected to reach Amritsar International Airport this weekend on two flights, after being deported from the United States. The development comes amid Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US to meet President Donald Trump after he assumed power on January 20.
Sources said that one of the flights is expected to land on Saturday (February 15) and another flight on Sunday (February 16) at the Guru Ram Dass Intentional Airport in Amritsar. Among the deportees, 67 are from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Rajasthan and Maharashtra and one each from Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
An official on condition of anonymity said that these deportees entered the United States illegally through the Mexico border and other routes after which they tore their passports.
This is the second group of people who are to be deported from the US after Donald Trump took over as the US president. The first group which arrived on February 5 at Amritsar had 104 Indians, who were seen handcuffed with their legs chained triggering a nationwide outrage. This prompted India to convey its concerns to the US on the treatment of the deportees.
Meanwhile addressing the media at the White House, in the US at PM Modi asserted the need to fight against the "ecosystem” of human trafficking that lures people from ordinary families with big dreams and promises and brings them to other countries as illegal immigrants. He said India was fully prepared to take back any verified Indians who were in the US illegally.
Modi urged dialogue to eradicate human trafficking, which he blamed for illegal immigration.
"Those who stay in other countries illegally do not have any legal right to be there. As far as India and the US are concerned, we have always said that those who are verified and are truly citizens of India if they live in the US illegally, India is ready to take them back. But it does not stop just there for us. These are people from ordinary families. They are shown big dreams and most of them are misled and brought here," he said.
According to US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP), about 1,700 Indians were apprehended between 2022 and November 2024. In 2022, 409 were intercepted, 730 in 2023, and 517 in 2024 until November, including 42 minors. In 2022, Pew Research Center had estimated that 725,000 unauthorized Indian immigrants living in the US.
The mass deportations are a key part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration policy, which has focused on stricter enforcement and the removal of undocumented individuals.