Amritsar/Chandigarh, Feb 15: A plane carrying 116 illegal Indian immigrants from the US landed at the Amritsar International Airport late on Saturday night, official sources said.
This is the second such batch of Indians to be deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of its promised crackdown on illegal immigrants. The flight landed at the airport around 11:30 pm as against the expected time of 10 pm, they said.
It was not immediately clear whether the deportees were in shackles or not.
After the first batch of illegal immigrants was sent back on February 5, most of the deportees hailing from Punjab had said they wanted to migrate to the US for a better life for their families. However, their dreams were shattered when they were caught on the US border and sent back in shackles.
Earlier, there were reports that the plane would carry 119 immigrants, but now as per an updated list of passengers, the number of deportees in the second batch was 116, they added.
Among the deportees, 65 are from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, two each from Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Most of the deportees are in the age group of 18 to 30, as per the sources.
The families of some of the deportees reached the airport to receive them.
A third plane carrying 157 deportees is also expected to land on February 16, they said.
On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar airport. Of them, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, and 30 from Punjab.
Speaking earlier in the day, the family members of a second batch of illegal Indian immigrants deported from the US were in a state of shock, with many of them saying that they raised money by pledging farm land and cattle to send them abroad for a bright future.
The family of Daljit Singh, a resident of Kurala Kalan village in the Tanda area of Hoshiarpur district, said a travel agent had duped them.
Kamalpreet Kaur, the wife of Daljit, alleged that her husband was deceived by the travel agent who promised him a direct flight to the US but instead, took him via the “donkey route” — an illegal and risky pathway used by migrants to enter the US.
Many people from Punjab and other states, who tried to enter the US through the “donkey route” — an illegal and risky pathway used by migrants to enter America by spending lakhs of rupees — are now facing deportation.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann earlier kept up his attack on the Centre over the landing of US planes carrying illegal Indian immigrants at Amritsar airport and asked it not to make the holy city a “deport centre”.
Mann visited the international airport in Amritsar and said his government has made arrangements to take the Punjab residents from among the second batch of deportees to their hometowns.
“Our vehicles are ready to take them to their places,” he said earlier in the day.
The chief minister said his administration has also offered to take the deportees from Haryana to their destinations.
However, the Haryana government has already made arrangements for taking the deportees hailing from the state to their respective places.
The deportees from the other states will travel to Delhi from Amritsar on a plane on Sunday morning and will then be taken to their respective places, Mann said.
Arrangements for food has been made for all the deportees, he added.
Earlier during the day, while talking to reporters at the Amritsar airport, the chief minister continued his attack on the Centre and said, “Do not make our holy city a deport centre.” He said Amritsar is known for the Golden Temple, the Durgiana Mandir, the Ram Tirath temple, Jallianwala Bagh and the Gobindgarh Fort.
There are many airbases in the country and planes carrying immigrants can land at any one of those, he said.
“Will they (the authorities concerned) allow the landing (of a plane carrying immigrants) in Vatican City, if they (immigrants) hail from there?” he asked.
Replying to a question on BJP leader R P Singh’s post on X that Amritsar is the closest international airport for planes entering India from the US, Mann wondered that in that case, why the Centre has not started flight services to the US from the city, which has been the demand of the state government.
Mann on Friday questioned the move to allow another plane carrying immigrants to land in Amritsar, as he accused the Centre of trying to “defame Punjab as part of a conspiracy”.
Commenting on the matter, BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh accused Mann of playing politics over deportees.
Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said the AAP government in Punjab has “failed” to curb human trafficking.
He asked Mann how many travel agents were booked for human trafficking in the last three years.
A four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), NRI Affairs, Praveen Sinha, has recently been formed by Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav to probe complaints regarding the involvement of fraudulent travel agents in deceptive immigration practices.
The DGP on Saturday reiterated Punjab Police’s commitment to dismantling these criminal networks and protecting vulnerable individuals from exploitation.
He requested the public to come forward with any information that could assist in apprehending culprits against whom cases have been registered.
Additionally, the DGP advised citizens to only approach licensed agents for immigration services and verify their credentials thoroughly to avoid falling prey to scams.
