iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
The second and third batches, consisting of 231 illegal immigrants from the U.S., landed at the Amritsar airport in India on February 15 and 16. The third batch arrived in a U.S. military aircraft carrying 112 Indians at the Amritsar airport at 10:03 p.m. on Sunday. Of the 112 deportees, 44 are from Haryana, 33 from Gujarat, 31 from Punjab, two from Uttar Pradesh, and one each from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
On Saturday night, February 15, the second batch of 119 illegal immigrants from the U.S., comprising 67 Punjabis, landed at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in a special plane. Saturday’s flight also had 33 people from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The first batch of deportees landed at the same airport with 104 deportees on February 5.
These deportations are part of a wider crackdown by U.S. immigration authorities on those who either entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas. Sources have revealed that deportations will continue on a bi-weekly basis, with similar flights bringing back Indian nationals in the coming weeks, until all undocumented immigrants are returned to their home countries.
The Indian government, through diplomatic channels, continues to work on repatriating its nationals affected by such deportations.
While the process has caused distress for many families, the authorities insist that the deportations are part of the ongoing effort to address illegal immigration, and those who wish to return home will be facilitated.
With the ongoing crackdown, both the U.S. and India are taking steps to address immigration challenges while ensuring their respective laws are upheld.
This deportation comes just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met U.S. President Donald Trump and stressed the need to fight against the “ecosystem” that lures people from ordinary families with big dreams and promises and brings them to other countries as illegal immigrants.
“We are of the opinion that anybody who enters and lives in another country illegally, they have absolutely no legal right or authority to live in that country,” PM Modi said at a joint press conference with Trump in the White House on Thursday.
Opposing the move to land the next plane carrying deported Indians at the Amritsar airport, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday described it as a “conspiracy of the Union government to defame Punjab and Punjabis”.
The Chief Minister protested that despite Punjab being the food bowl and sword arm of India, the move to land the plane carrying deported Indians from the U.S. “is just another attempt of the Government of India to tarnish the image of Punjab globally”.
Mann questioned the move of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to choose Amritsar for landing this plane whereas there are hundreds of other airports in the country. The Chief Minister said he has already raised this issue with the MEA and the Ministry of Home Affairs but hasn’t received any positive response from them.
He said that one plane had landed a few days back and now two more planes are being landed without any proper justification. The Chief Minister said, “It is the moral responsibility of the MEA to explain why Punjab, especially Amritsar, has been chosen for this landing”.
He said even though a hostile neighbor is 40 km away from Amritsar, an Army plane of the U.S. is being landed there.
