A U.S. army aircraft with at the very least 100 migrants aboard landed in India on Wednesday, officers stated, the longest such deportation flight since President Trump took workplace and an indication that international locations whose leaders he favors won’t be spared his immigration crackdown.
It seemed to be the primary use of an American army plane to deport folks to India, which is one of many high sources of unauthorized immigration to the USA. Greater than 1,000 Indians have been despatched again to the nation final yr on industrial flights.
The U.S. Division of Protection confirmed on Wednesday that an Air Drive C-17 aircraft landed at about 3:30 a.m. Jap in Amritsar, India.
Officers within the authorities of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who enjoys an in depth relationship with President Trump, have expressed confidence that India is best positioned than most international locations to take care of the Trump administration, they usually have publicly expressed a willingness to just accept deportees.
However Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, a minister within the state authorities of Punjab, the place the aircraft landed on Wednesday, criticized Mr. Trump’s powerful stance on unlawful immigration and urged that Mr. Modi’s authorities ought to do extra to withstand him.
“The Indian federal authorities should take this very significantly — in spite of everything, there are folks from many Indian states who’ve been deported,” he stated in an interview on Tuesday. “And what’s their crime? They might have gone illegally, however it was for his or her livelihoods. I’m drastically disheartened. President Trump should give these folks one other probability and, on humanitarian grounds, do a rethink of his determination.”
Mr. Dhaliwal stated that he could be on the airport to obtain the deportees and be sure that they weren’t handled as criminals.
The Pew Analysis Heart estimated in 2022 that greater than 700,000 undocumented Indian immigrants have been residing in the USA, greater than from any nation however Mexico and El Salvador. Latest stories in Indian information media stated that just below 20,000 migrants have been scheduled for imminent deportation.
Indians are among the many migrants from world wide who’ve illegally entered the USA by way of Mexico in rising numbers in recent times. Final yr, greater than 25,000 Indians have been arrested whereas attempting to cross the southern border illegally, based on U.S. authorities information. Indian migrants additionally contributed to rising numbers of arrests on the northern border with Canada final yr.
Hamed Aleaziz and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
