When 27-year-old Vishal left his village of Nandgarh in Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar district in April 2024, he carried with him the hopes of his family and a dream - to make it big in the United States.
What he did not know was that the journey would lead him through jungles, jails, and the very edge of survival.
Videos of Vishal being handcuffed and pinned down by US immigration officers at Newark International Airport last month had sparked outrage and confusion online. Many assumed he was a student. But he was an illegal immigrant for sure. But the truth, however, is far more complex and heartbreaking.
Tracked down by this reporter on Wednesday, a visibly shaken Vishal had returned to his village just a week ago, on June 26, after 15 harrowing months. He is not a student, but a farmer, a Class 10 pass-out who once tilled his family's land. And he had been duped out of Rs 45 lakh by a Karnal-based agent who promised him an American work visa.
“My family sold our land to pay the agent,” Vishal said quietly. “He told us I’d first go to Europe and then be taken to the US through Central America. One of our relatives in Italy helped me get a nine-month farm visa. I reached Verona, stayed there for eight days, and then flew to Rome.”
From there, Vishal’s ordeal began in earnest — a gruelling journey that took him from Brazil to Colombia, then through Panama’s deadly jungle routes.
“I walked for four days through the Panama forest, climbed three mountains, waded through neck-deep rivers, and heard the roars of wild animals at night,” he recalled. “I don’t know how I made it out alive. We saw dead bodies on the way. Women with babies were walking alongside us.”
He eventually made it to Mexico after travelling through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, mostly by bus, paying for each leg with money wired by his younger brother back home.
But in Mexico, Vishal’s journey took a terrifying turn when he was kidnapped by a group who claimed the agent had failed to pay them their promised cut. Held at gunpoint and confined in a building for nearly two months along with a few others, Vishal lived in constant fear.
“One night, I decided to risk everything. I jumped off a second-floor balcony to escape,” he recalled. “One of them fired at me as I ran, but I didn’t stop. I just ran for my life and somehow got away.” Then he could find another agent who he paid R 5 lakh to be smuggled into the US in a pickup truck crowded with other migrants.
“I squatted the entire 1,000-km journey, unable to move an inch,” he said. But just before reaching the U.S. border, their vehicle was intercepted. Vishal was arrested and imprisoned in Texas for 10 months.
The most painful moment came while behind bars. “My cousin visited me and told me my father had passed away. I didn’t even know,” he said, choking up.
After months in prison, he was brought to Newark Airport for deportation. That’s when the now-viral incident occurred. “They kept calling me crazy. I just shouted, ‘Me not crazy!’ in anger. That got reported as violent behaviour, and I was taken back to prison,” he said.
He was finally deported from Louisiana on June 25 along with 222 deportees, including women. After landing in Delhi, he took a bus home to Nandgarh.
Now back home, Vishal says he never intended to break any law. “I just wanted to earn in dollars and bring my family to the U.S. after I got permanent residency,” he said. “But I made a mistake by trusting the wrong people.”
His message to others is clear: “Take the legal route. Don’t fall for shortcuts. They will destroy your life.”
His younger brother Viren is now preparing to go abroad too — this time, with an IELTS coaching certificate in hand. “I’ll do it legally,” he says.
