U.S. flight brings second batch of 116 deportees to Amritsar

Relatives wait outside the airport ahead of the second batch of the immigrants’ arrival from the US, in Amritsar, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

A United States aircraft carrying a batch of 116 alleged illegal migrants from India, who were deported from the U.S., landed at Punjab’s Amritsar International Airport on Saturday night.

This was the second group of Indian citizens to be sent back from the U.S. after President Donald Trump started a crackdown on illegal immigrants. On February 5, a U.S. military plane brought 104 illegal immigrants, in handcuffs and chains, to Amritsar, inviting sharp criticism from the Opposition.

According to officials, of the 116 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 & Kashmir. Sources said that most of the deportees are aged between 18 and 30. Some of their family members arrived at the airport to receive them.

Another flight carrying more deportees is expected to arrive on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann slammed the Centre over the landing of U.S. planes with illegal Indian immigrants at the Amritsar airport and asked the Union government not to make the holy city a “deport centre”. The Bharatiya Janata Party hit back at the Chief Minister and accused him of playing politics over the deportation.

Editorial: ​Not worth the risk: On the U.S., India and illegal emigration 

A large number of people, especially youth from Punjab, travel abroad in hope of a better life. As the trend continued to grow, illegal and irregular migration proliferated. The magnitude of irregular migration from Punjab is believed to be substantial, but there is hardly any authentic data on this in the public domain.

After the first batch of migrants returned, the Punjab Police set up a Special Investigation Team to probe human trafficking and illegal migration. That batch of deportees comprised 33 migrants each from Haryana and Gujarat, and 30 from Punjab.