KEY POINTS
- The first time the US military had flown as far as India to deport immigrants
- Deported Indians were questioned before being taken out of the airport
NEW DELHI, India: A US military plane carrying 104 deported Indian illegal immigrants landed in India on Wednesday, authorities said, the first such flight to the country as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda a week before he is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington.
The Indians who returned home had illegally entered the United States over the years and came from various Indian states. Trump and Modi discussed immigration in a phone call last week and Trump stressed the importance of India buying more American-made security equipment and fair bilateral trade.
Although illegal Indian immigrants have been deported by previous US administrations, it is the first time Washington has used a military aircraft for the purpose. It is also the farthest destination so far for such flights using a military aircraft.
The US aircraft that landed in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, in the northern Indian state of Punjab, returned 104 Indian illegal immigrants, said Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Punjab’s minister for Non-Resident Indian Affairs.
Punjab police said 33 immigrants each were from Gujarat, Modi’s home state and the northern state of Haryana, while 30 were from Punjab. They underwent hours of scrutiny at the airport before police escorted them out in small groups in police vehicles.
The Indian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration has increasingly turned to the military to help carry out its immigration agenda, using military aircraft to deport migrants and opening military bases to house them.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also ’emphasised’ the Trump administration’s desire to work with India to address “concerns related to irregular migration” when he met Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar last month.
New Delhi has since said it will take back such illegal immigrants after verifying their details.
The State Department said such deportations send a message of deterrence to other people considering migrating illegally.
India’s junior External Affairs Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh told India’s Parliament that 519 Indian nationals were deported to India between November 2023 and October 2024, citing US government data.
The US government carries out deportations through commercial and chartered flights, he added.
Rubio said earlier this week the deportation flights were an effective way to stem the flow of illegal migration, which he said is destructive and destabilising.
Media reports say there are about 7,25,000 undocumented Indians in the US, mainly from Punjab and Gujarat states, and that Indians comprised about 3% of all illegal border crossings in the US in 2024.
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The Indian Express newspaper said there were 20,407 undocumented Indians as of November last year who are either facing final removal orders or are currently in detention centres of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The US is India’s largest trading partner and the two countries are forging deeper strategic ties as they look to counter China.
India is also keen to work with the US to make it easier for its citizens to get skilled workers visas.
The Pentagon has said it plans to deport more than 5,000 migrants held by US authorities. Last week, Reuters news agency reported that a flight to Guatemala used for the purpose likely cost at least $4,675 per migrant. – Agencies
