"That has been part of a steady increase in removals"
A US military plane carrying around 100 Indian migrants accused of entering the country illegally has landed in Amritsar, Punjab.
The military aircraft, which departed Texas on February 4, 2025, is the latest in a series of deportations orchestrated by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Authorities in Amritsar have implemented special measures to process the deportees upon arrival.
Trump has prioritised the mass deportation of undocumented migrants, with the US identifying approximately 18,000 Indian nationals it claims entered the country illegally.
The president has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured him that India would “do what’s right” in accepting the deportations.
Punjab officials have set up special counters to receive the deportees and have stated that the individuals will be treated in a “friendly” manner.
There were 104 individuals aboard the flight.
They will be processed separately from regular passengers before being transported to their home states, including Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat.
Deportation flights to India are not new.
In the 2024 US fiscal year, over 1,000 Indian migrants were repatriated via charter and commercial flights.
In October, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported more than 100 Indian nationals, continuing a growing trend in removals to India.
This flight also landed in Punjab, though no specific breakdown of hometowns was provided.
Royce Bernstein Murray, assistant secretary at the US Department of Homeland Security, explained the rise in removals:
“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.”
Encounters refer to instances where non-citizens are stopped by US authorities while attempting to cross the borders with Mexico or Canada.
From 2018 to 2023, ICE deported 5,477 Indians, with 2,300 deported in 2020, the highest number in recent years.
New data from the Pew Research Centre estimates 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, making them the third-largest group after Mexico and El Salvador.
Meanwhile, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates the number to be 375,000, ranking India fifth among origin countries.
India is not the only country facing resistance in accepting deportees.
ICE has 1.44 million non-citizens on its “non-detained docket with final orders of removal”, including 17,940 from India.
Some nations, like China and India, have been labelled “uncooperative” by ICE, citing issues such as refusal to accept charter flights or delays in issuing travel documents.
India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal recently said India was “firmly opposed to illegal migration, especially as it is linked to other forms of organised crime”.
He said: “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.”
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