US aircraft carrying 104 deported Indians lands at Amritsar airport
Amritsar, Feb 5 (PTI): A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal immigrants from various states landed here on Wednesday, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Trump government as part of a crackdown it resolved to carry out when it was sworn in last month.
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 included 19 women and 13 minors, they said.
The US action comes just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington to hold wide-ranging talks with President Donald Trump.
The C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US Air Force landed at the Amritsar airport at 1:55 pm. There was heavy barricading outside the airport and police personnel were deployed in large numbers.
All the deportees were being questioned inside the airport terminal building by different government agencies, including the Punjab Police, and various state and central intelligence agencies to check if they have any criminal record.
The deportees are expected to be allowed to go to their homes following verification and background checks even though there has been no official word about it yet.
Earlier, media reports claimed that the US military plane was carrying 205 illegal immigrants.
Among the illegal immigrants hailing from Punjab, six are from Kapurthala, five from Amritsar, four each from Patiala and Jalandhar, two each from Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, SBS Nagar and one each from Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Sangrur, SAS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib, sources said.
According to them, arrangements have been made by the state governments concerned to take the deportees to their hometowns.
An Amritsar-based elderly man, who came for his grandson, refused to talk to the media outside the airport.
Talking to PTI videos in the Mohali district, family members of Pradeep, who is among the deportees who landed at the Amritsar airport, demanded that the Bhagwant Mann government repay the debts they incurred to send the youth to the US.
They claimed that they had to sell their land and take Rs 20-25 lakh loan to send the youth to the US for a brighter future. But since he has been deported, the family members demanded that either the Mann dispensation provides them fiancial assistance to repay their debt or give the youth a government job.
Meanwhile, the Congress expressed sadness over "pictures of Indians getting handcuffed and humiliated" while being deported from the US and recalled that America had to express regret over the treatment meted out to India diplomat Devyani Khobragade in 2013 after the then UPA government retaliated sharply.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said the media kerfuffle over the deportation of illegal Indian migrants from the United States obscures a few facts.
"This is not the first such planeload, nor is it directly related to the ascent of @realDonaldTrump. There were 1,100 Indians deported in the previous fiscal year (ending September 2024), under Biden, not Trump. As of 2022, there were 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US -- the third-largest group, outnumbered only by nationals of Mexico and El Salvador, he said.
"Since October 2020, US Customs and Border Protection officials have detained nearly 170,000 Indian migrants attempting to cross the border illegally from either Canada or Mexico. They are all subject to deportation," Tharoor said.
After Donald Trump assumed office as the US President last month, the country's law enforcement agencies have launched a crackdown against illegal immigrants. Many Indians, who entered the US through "donkey routes" or other illegal means by spending lakhs of rupees, are now facing deportation.
Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said on Tuesday that the state government would receive the immigrants and set up counters at the airport.
Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal had expressed disappointment over the US government's decision and said these individuals, who contributed to that country's economy, should have been granted permanent residency instead of being deported.
He said many Indians entered the US on work permits which later expired, making them illegal immigrants. The minister said he plans to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar next week to discuss the concerns and interests of Punjabis living in the US.
Dhaliwal had also appealed to Punjabis not to travel abroad using illegal means, emphasising the importance of acquiring skills and education to access opportunities worldwide.
He encouraged people to research legal ways and acquire education and language skills before travelling abroad.
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Sujit Nair raises concerns over speculation of DMK-AIADMK understanding to block TVK
Chennai: Journalist and political commentator Sujit Nair has expressed concern over speculation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam could explore a post-poll understanding to prevent Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam from forming the government in Tamil Nadu.
In a social media post, Sujit Nair said the election verdict in Tamil Nadu reflected a clear public demand for political change and argued that the mandate should be respected irrespective of political preferences.
Referring to reports and political discussions surrounding a possible understanding between the DMK and AIADMK, he said he hoped such developments remained only speculative conversations and did not turn into reality.
Nair stated that if such an alliance were to take shape, it would raise serious questions about ideological politics in the country. He said TVK had emerged through a democratic electoral process and that the legitimacy to govern in a parliamentary democracy comes from the people’s verdict.
According to him, attempts to prevent an electoral winner from forming the government through unexpected political arrangements may be constitutionally valid, but many people could view them as politically opportunistic.
He further said that such a move could particularly affect the political image of the DMK, which has historically projected itself around ideology, social justice and opposition politics. Nair said that in ideological terms, the DMK appeared closer to TVK than to the AIADMK, and joining hands with its long-time political rival only to remain in power could weaken its broader political narrative.
He added that the same questions would apply to the AIADMK as well, as the party had spent decades positioning itself against the DMK and such an arrangement could create discomfort among its cadre and supporters.
Drawing a comparison with Maharashtra politics in 2019, Nair said he had expressed similar views when the Shiv Sena formed an alliance with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after the Assembly elections.
He said post-poll alliances between long-standing political rivals often create a public perception that ideology and electoral mandates become secondary when political power equations come into play.
Nair also said such developments increase public cynicism towards politics and reinforce the belief among voters that ideology is often sidelined after elections.
He maintained that the Tamil Nadu verdict was emphatic and said respecting both the spirit and substance of the mandate was important for the credibility of democratic politics.
