US plane with 119 deported Indians to land today
Amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, a second US plane carrying 119 deported Indian nationals is expected to arrive at Punjab’s Amritsar airport around 10 pm today.
Among them, 67 are from Punjab, 33 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.
A third plane carrying the deportees is also expected to land in India tomorrow.
The deportations are likely to continue on a bi-weekly basis, with similar flights bringing back Indian nationals in the coming weeks until all undocumented immigrants have returned.
The first US military plane carrying 104 deported Indians landed on February 5. Of them, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh. Many of these migrants had spent a huge amount of money on promises of legal entry into the US. Instead, they endured gruelling, multi-country treks arranged by human traffickers.
As the Indians landed, many horror stories followed about the manner in which they were transported from the US to India. A video shared by the US Border Patrol also showed the migrants being handcuffed and their legs shackled. As they deboarded the plane, visuals showed the Indians made to a shuffled walk – something that is commonly associated with hardened criminals.