Flight with 104 people draws huge crowd at airport as US blamed for ‘handcuffing’ and ‘humiliating’ deportees. A US military plane deporting over a hundred Indian immigrants landed in India’s northern state of Punjab on Wednesday, the first such flight as Donald Trump’s key policies during his second term in office takes shape. The C-17 plane which took off from Texas on Tuesday landed at Amritsar’s Shri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport on Wednesday afternoon.

Mass deportation of undocumented people living in the US of various nationalities was one of the key policies under the second Trump administration. Videos showed the US military plane making a landing with media and family members gathering at the airport. Those who returned were people identified from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. Authorities in Punjab have made arrangements to receive and process deportees.

A total of 48 deportees are under the age of 25, including 12 minors and 25 women. The youngest passenger is just four years old, the Indian Express newspaper reported, citing sources. In terms of regional distribution, the highest number of deportees – 33 each – are from Gujarat and Haryana, followed by 30 from Punjab. Maharashtra has three deportees, while Uttar Pradesh and Chandigarh each have two.

“We discussed it in the meeting chaired by the chief minister today. He has asked us that the Punjab government receive them in a friendly manner,” said Punjab director general of police Gaurav Yadav. “We shall set up our counters there (at the airport). We are in touch with the central government. Whenever we shall receive any more information, we will share it.”. The deportation has kicked off a political storm in India with the opposition Congress Party calling out the ruling Modi’ government for staying silent on Indians being “humiliated”.

India has said it will cooperate with the US and was ready to accept the deported Indians after verification. New Delhi said it was against illegal immigration, mainly because it is linked to several forms of organised crime, and has not objected to the US deporting its citizens. "For Indians, not just in the United States but anywhere in the world, if they are Indian nationals, and they are overstaying or they are in a particular country without proper documentation, we will take them back, provided documents are shared with us so that we can verify their nationality that they are indeed Indians," India's External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said last month.

"If that happens to be the case, then we will take things forward. We will facilitate the return to India," Mr Jaiswal said. US secretary of state Marco Rubio said earlier this week the deportation flights were an effective way to stem the flow of illegal migration, which he said was destructive and destabilising. It is however not the first time the US has deported Indian immigrants in expensive military or chartered flights.

India's junior External Affairs Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh told India's parliament that 519 Indian nationals were deported to India between November 2023 and October 2024, citing US government data. Between 2018 and 2023, a total of 5,477 Indians have been deported by the US to India, according to official US immigration and customs data. More similar flights are expected. However, the exact number of undocumented Indian immigrants in the US remains unknown.

The US is believed to have identified about 18,000 undocumented Indians who could be sent back. The Pew Research Center estimates there are around 725,000 undocumented Indian migrants in the US, making them the third-largest group of illegal immigrants in the country after those from Mexico and El Salvador. However, a 2022 Department of Homeland Security report said around 220,000 Indians were living in the US without authorisation.