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In a first of the sorts, 104 illegal migrants from India who tried to settle in USA while breaking laws subsequently arrested were ferried back to the country in a US Air Force military aircraft.

On Wednesday the 5th of February 2025 a USAF C-17 heavy left transport aircraft landed at Sri Guru Ramdasji International Airport, Amritsar ferrying 104 Indians with deportation papers.

This firs batch included 25 women and 79 men, besides 13 children. Of the 104, 33 belonged to Gujarat, 33 to Haryana and 30 were from Punjab.

The US transport aircraft had taken-off from San Antonio, Texas, on Tuesday.

After off-loading deportees and completing formalities C-17 left Amritsar airport.

All the immigrants were being identified and necessary paperwork was being done for verification, after which they will be sent to their respective states.

The Punjab government has arranged buses to transport the deportees to their respective locations.

Individuals without valid documentation will be handed over to the Punjab Police for further processing.

The US has deported 205 Indians after the newly-elected President Donald Trump announced not to allow illegal immigrants. The US has also deported illegal immigrants from Brazil and Mexico.

Of the 30 from Punjab, five are from Amritsar, six from Kapurthala, four each from Jalandhar and Patiala, two each from Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and SBS Nagar, and one each from Sangrur, SAS Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran.

The deportation of the Indian nationals comes days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced concerns over “irregular migration” during his first bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Washington last month.

 

During the January 21 meeting between the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and EAM Jaishankar, the US readout of the meeting said that the US side “emphasized the Trump Administration’s desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration”.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during a recent media briefing declined to put a number to how many Indians are staying illegally in the US, but said that India will take back undocumented Indian nationals.

Jaiswal had said: “We are against illegal immigration, especially because it is linked to several forms of organized crime. For Indians, not just in the United States but anywhere in the world, if they are Indian nationals, and they are overstaying or they are in a particular country without proper documentation, we will take them back, provided documents are shared with us so that we can verify their nationality that they are indeed Indians. If that happens to be the case, then we will take things forward, we will facilitate the return to India.”

“As part of India-U.S. migration and mobility cooperation, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration, while also creating more avenues for legal migration from India to the U.S. We are keen to continue this cooperation.”