Indian Migrants US Border: A US military aircraft carrying around 205 illegal Indian immigrants is likely to land at the Shri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport in Punjab’s Amritsar on Wednesday afternoon.
The United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft took off from the US Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas, and each of the immigrants was checked beforehand by an Indian embassy official, ABP Live had reported. The plane was earlier expected to land in the morning.
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.
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Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal on Tuesday 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.
Dhaliwal said he will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar next week to discuss the “concerns and interests” of Punjabis living in the US. Dhaliwal also appealed to the people from the state not to travel abroad through illegal means and asked them to research legal ways.
Trump’s Crackdown On Illegal Immigration
Amid Trump’s ongoing crackdown on unauthorised immigration, this is the first such flight of Indian nationals who went to the US using illegal means. While Indians have been deported before, this is the first time the US government is using a military aircraft with American military personnel for the exercise.
According to the Pew Research Center, there are an estimated 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US as of 2024.
Acting tough on illegal migrants, the Pentagon has also started providing flights to deport more than 5,000 immigrants held by U.S. authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California. So far, military aircraft have flown migrants to Guatemala, Peru and Honduras.
