Deportation of Illegal Indian Immigrants from the U.S. Begins
An American Military Aircraft Departs with 205 Indians to Amritsar
Washington ( Web News )
The process of deporting illegal Indian immigrants from the U.S. has begun, with military aircraft being used for repatriation. According to a report by the German broadcaster DW, a U.S. Army C-17 aircraft departed from San Antonio and is en route to Amritsar. During this long flight, there is only one toilet available for the 205 passengers aboard. The number of illegal Indian immigrants in the U.S. is approximately 725,000. Indian authorities have yet to release an official statement on the matter. Previously, Indian Foreign Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar had stated that the Indian government is prepared for the “legal return” of Indian citizens living abroad illegally, including in the U.S. U.S. President Donald Trump had also mentioned that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured him that India would do “what is right” for the return of its illegal citizens from the U.S. According to a Bloomberg News report, India and the U.S. have identified around 18,000 Indian immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the issue of irregular immigration during his visit to India, to which Foreign Minister Jaishankar responded that India does not support illegal immigration. If any of its citizens are found illegally in the U.S. and their citizenship is confirmed, India is prepared for their legal return.
An Indian official mentioned that the C-17 aircraft has already departed for India with the immigrants onboard. However, it will not reach India until after 24 hours. The U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) has also begun a series of flights to deport over 5,000 immigrants, who were detained in Texas’s El Paso and California’s San Diego. So far, flights have already taken immigrants to Guatemala, Peru, and Honduras. Transferring people via military planes is an expensive process. For instance, the cost of sending a single immigrant on a flight to Guatemala last week amounted to $4,675. The total number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is about 11 million (1.1 crore). Trump had mentioned during his election campaign that if re-elected, he would initiate the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
Indian media reports suggest that this deportation is likely the first flight of several planned ones, as further groups of illegal Indian immigrants are expected to be repatriated in the coming weeks.