A US deportation flight carrying approximately 100 Indian nationals accused of entering the country illegally has arrived in Punjab.
The military aircraft, which departed from Texas late Tuesday, has now landed in Amritsar, where local authorities have implemented measures to process the deportees.
Mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals has been a central policy of President Donald Trump. The US has reportedly identified around 18,000 Indian nationals believed to have entered the country unlawfully.
Trump stated that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured him that the nation would “do what’s right” in accepting the deportees.
Authorities in Punjab have established special counters to process the arrivals, emphasizing that they will be treated in a “friendly” manner.
Journalists have gathered outside police barricades near an Indian Air Force facility in Amritsar.
The flight carries 104 Indian deportees, who will undergo separate processing from regular passengers before being transported by buses to their home states, including Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat.
Trump has increasingly relied on US military aircraft for repatriating individuals to their home countries.
However, deportation flights to India are not unprecedented. In the US fiscal year 2024, which concluded in September, more than 1,000 Indian nationals were repatriated via chartered and commercial flights.
In October, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported over 100 Indian nationals lacking legal grounds to remain in the US on a chartered flight, highlighting an upward trend in removals to India.
That flight, which included both men and women, was also directed to Punjab, a region close to many deportees’ places of origin. No specific breakdown of their hometowns was provided.
Much of the migration from India to the US originates from the Sikh-majority state of Punjab and neighboring Haryana, regions traditionally associated with high rates of emigration. Another key source is Gujarat, Modi’s home state.
“That has been part of a steady increase in removals from the US of Indian nationals over the past few years, which corresponds with a general increase in encounters that we have seen with Indian nationals in the last few years as well,” said Royce Bernstein Murray, assistant secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security, during an October media briefing.
US Plane Bringing Indian ImmigrantsEncounters refer to cases where non-citizens are intercepted by US authorities while attempting to cross the country’s borders with Mexico or Canada.
Between 2018 and 2023, a total of 5,477 Indian nationals were deported from the US by ICE, according to official records. The peak occurred in 2020, with more than 2,300 deportations.
Migrants from India were seen sharing water in the intense heat after crossing into the US from Mexico last year.
The estimated number of undocumented Indian immigrants in the US varies.
According to new data from the Pew Research Center, there were 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in 2022, making them the third-largest group after those from Mexico and El Salvador.
Conversely, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates the figure at 375,000, ranking India fifth among origin countries. Unauthorized immigrants constitute 3% of the US population and 22% of the foreign-born population.
As of November, 1.44 million non-citizens in the US remain on ICE’s “non-detained docket with final orders of removal,” according to a document.
The highest numbers come from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico, each exceeding 200,000 individuals awaiting deportation. China has 37,908 pending cases, while India has 17,940 listed for removal.
The ICE document indicates that the US government expects foreign nations to accept their citizens but often encounters resistance.
ICE classifies 15 nations, including China, India, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, as “uncooperative.” Additionally, 11 others—such as Iraq, Nicaragua, and Vietnam—are considered at risk of non-compliance.
“Factors that could lead to a country being classified as uncooperative include hindering ICE’s removal efforts by refusing to conduct consular interviews when necessary; refusing to accept charter removal missions; having an unacceptable ratio of releases when compared to removals and/or unacceptable average time from executable final order of removal to removal; and/or denying or delaying issuance of travel documents, such as passports,” the document states.
India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal recently reiterated India’s stance against illegal migration, particularly in cases linked to organized crime.
“As part of India-US 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 US. We are keen to continue this cooperation.
“At the same time, the government of India would need to do the required verification, including nationality of the concerned individuals before they are deported to India.”
Last year, under former US President Joe Biden, 271,000 migrants were deported to 192 countries.