Soon after becoming the American President for the second time, Donald Trump has started deporting illegal immigrants using both military and commercial flights. As part of this exercise, over 100 Indians who had entered the USA illegally have been sent back to India. A military plane carrying the first batch of 104 Indians landed in Amritsar on Wednesday.
The Congress party has decided to make it a political issue, and has started attacking the Modi government for not doing anything to keep the Indians in the USA. The Congress party expects the NDA government to support illegal immigration.
The party leaders are also spreading fake news, using visuals of illegal immigrants from Guatemala in handcuffs and chained to claim that they were Indians. Using the images of Guatemalan immigrants, Congress leaders like Priyanka Vadra claimed that despite the friendship with PM Modi, Trump treated the Indians with indignity. She also demanded that the Indian government send flights to the US to bring back the illegal immigrants.
A #Fake image is being shared on social media by many accounts with a claim that illegal Indian migrants have been handcuffed and their legs chained while being deported by US#PIBFactCheck
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) February 5, 2025
▶️ The image being shared in these posts does not pertain to Indians. Instead it shows… pic.twitter.com/9bD9eYkjVO
There is no doubt that the Congress party always supported illegal immigration into India and now wants the Modi govt to show sympathy for Indians who entered the US without valid papers. But the fact is, the American government has full authority to deport illegal immigrants, just like the Indian govt has the full authority to detect and deport illegal immigrants staying in the country.
Indian govt regularly evacuates people from conflict or disaster-hit zones across the world. But the undocumented Indians in the US don’t fall in this category, and therefore there is no question of India on its own sending planes to bring them back. The US administration is using both military and commercial planes for the operation, and the Indian govt should not interfere in this.
Notably, the Congress party wants to create the impression that this is the first time such large-scale deportation of Indian illegal immigrants has taken place, and somehow this is a diplomatic loss for India. But that is completely wrong, as every country has the right to deport undocumented aliens, and it has nothing to do with the diplomatic relations between the two countries concerned.
Just like Indian authorities regularly detect and take steps to deport illegal immigrants, other countries also regularly do the same with Indians who entered those countries without valid visas. Several such instances were reported in the media in the past, including when the Congress party was in power at the centre.
Not just illegal immigrants, foreign countries also deported Indias who were living there legally but were found to be involved in various kinds of crimes, irregularities etc.
Here are a few such examples:
In 2011, around 6500 students were deported from Australia for Visa irregularities. In the same year, Saudi Arabia sent back around 50,000 Indian illegal immigrants, mostly unskilled workers, in an amnesty program. This also included those Indians who entered the country legally but had overstayed their Visas, including Haj and Umra Visas.
In the same year, a large number of Indian students were detained in the USA for alleged immigration fraud.
In an article in 2011, NBC reported that between October 2009 and March 2011, the US Border Patrol detained at least 2,600 illegal immigrants from India. It said that the number rose dramatically over around 150 to 300 arrests per year.
In February 2014, months before the Modi govt came to power, the Ministry of External Affairs informed the parliament that 56 Indians were deported from Singapore for allegedly being involved in riots.
Deportation of Indians from the USA took place under the Biden administration too. Kirti Vardhan Singh, MoS External Affairs, told the Lok Sabha in December last year that 519 Indian nationals were deported from the USA to India between November 2023 and October 2024, citing US government data. The reply stated, “As per US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Indian nationals who were deported from the US to India were under order of removal, as they were declared unauthorized to stay in the US by the competent authorities.”
Notably, according to data from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, over 5,000 Indians were deported from the country between 2018-2023 for entering and staying in the country illegally.
In 2019, more than 325 Indians were deported from Mexico for illegally entering the country. Mexican immigration authorities had chartered a Boeing 747-400 plane to transport the Indians back to India after they were issued Emergency Certificates.
Treatment of detainees
The Congress leaders have targeted PM Modi over alleged inhuman treatment of those deported from USA to India. However, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the process of deportation used by the US is not new, it has been there for years. He added that this is not a policy applicable to only one country.
The minister added that women and children were not restrained by US authorities.
Jaishankar further said that illegal immigration should be discouraged and deported Indians should be taken back, adding, “Our focus should be on crackdown on illegal migrants.”
Comparison with Devyani Khobragade incident
Congress leader Pawan Khera cited the incident of investigation against Indian Diplomat Devyani Khobragade in the USA in 2013. He said that when Khobragade was handcuffed and strip searched in America, Indian govt reacted sharply, registered a strong protest, and similarly the Modi govt also should protest against the Trump administration.
अमेरिका से भारतीयों को हथकड़ी लगाकर और अपमानित करके निर्वासित किए जाने की तस्वीरें देखकर, एक भारतीय होने के नाते मुझे दुख होता है।
— Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 (@Pawankhera) February 5, 2025
मुझे दिसंबर 2013 की वह घटना याद है जब भारतीय राजनयिक देवयानी खोबरागड़े को अमेरिका में हथकड़ी लगाई गई थी और स्ट्रिप सर्च किया गया था।
▪️ विदेश… https://t.co/MS80jCDTfK
However, this is a baseless allegation. Devyani Khobragade not only entered US legally, she was an Indian diplomat having diplomatic immunity. She was investigated alleging that she obtained visa for a woman illegally. To strip search a woman accused of visa fraud for someone else was excessive use of force, and therefore the Indian govt had lodged a strong complaint.
The current case can’t be compared with that. US has arrested illegal immigrants, restrained them and deporting them to the respective countries. Evert country has the right to arrest illegal immigrants, and India can’t protest if authorities in US arrest Indians who entered the country illegally.
Rahul Gandhi says that Indians deported from USA for illegal immigration deserve dignity and humanity, because the deportees were allegedly handcuffed and chained. While this sounds inhuman, the fact remains that they violated the rule of the land by entering the country, and the country has right to take appropriate legal action.
Handcuffing and restraining people detained for violation of law is standard police practice done everywhere, including in India. Calling for a diplomatic war against USA over this issue is completely illogical.
