US Military Plane Conducts Historic Deportation Flight to India
A U.S. military plane has landed in India carrying deportees, highlighting the government's strict immigration policies under President Trump, despite diplomatic ties with India.
A U.S. military plane with at least 100 people aboard landed in India on Wednesday, marking the longest deportation flight since President Trump took office. This event signifies the administration's stringent immigration policies extending even to countries with leaders favorable to Trump.
This flight appears to be the first instance of an American military aircraft being used to deport individuals to India, a leading source of unauthorized immigration to the United States. In the previous year, over 1,000 Indians were returned via commercial flights.
Officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which maintains a strong relationship with the U.S. administration, have indicated readiness to accept deportees. However, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, a Punjab state minister where the plane landed, criticized Trump's immigration policies, urging the Indian federal government to push back against such measures.
Dhaliwal stated, "The Indian federal government must take this very seriously -- after all, there are people from many Indian states who have been deported. And what is their crime? They may have gone illegally, but it was for their livelihoods. I am greatly disheartened. President Trump must give these people another chance and, on humanitarian grounds, do a rethink of his decision."
He confirmed he would be present at the airport to receive the deportees and ensure they were treated with dignity.
The Pew Research Center estimated in 2022 that over 700,000 undocumented Indian immigrants reside in the U.S., more than any nation besides Mexico and El Salvador. Recent reports indicated around 20,000 Indian migrants faced imminent deportation.
Indians have increasingly entered the U.S. illegally through Mexico in recent years. In the past year, over 25,000 Indians were apprehended trying to cross the southern border, according to U.S. government data. Indian migrants were also a significant factor in the escalating number of arrests at the northern border with Canada last year.
Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting from Washington.
