SALEMPURA: It took Daler Singh six months and $ 45,000 to reach the US last month without paperwork. Within three weeks of arrival, he was sent back to his original India on a military aircraft, his hands and legs Mansjet through the journey.
Singh, 37, was among 104 Indians who were deported by US authorities Wednesday in a very publicized transfer that meets an important election ceiling for President Donald Trump, but is an embarrassment to India, a close partner whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Washington next week.
“I’ve lost all my life earnings. My dreams are crushed,” Singh said in his home in the village of Salempura in Punjab State bordering Pakistan.
“No one has to take the illegal route and buy promises from agents. People have to go through the visus route.”
Singh said he had to mortgage a mortgage family jewelry and land to raise about four million rupees ($ 45,700) to pay the agent. He said his journey was involved in flying to Dubai in early August, where he stayed for months before being made to Trek for several days in Mexico on his way to the United States.
US authorities detained him on January 15 and then moved him and others on a C-17 Globemaster aircraft this week for the journey at home.
In a social media post, US border Patrol (USBP) chief Michael W Banks published a video showing some men were led into a military aircraft in handcuffs and legs in chains.
“USBP and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight, yet using military transport,” Banks said at X.
“This mission emphasizes our obligation to enforce immigration laws and secure rapid removal. If you cross illegally, you will be removed.”
The return of the Indians in the age of four to 46 years and including 25 females has given the country’s opposition parties a chance to beat back on the government in Modi, who has talked about increasing the tape to the United States.
The deported were from five Indian states, including Modi’s home state of Gujarat and the federal territory Chandigarh.
Handcuffs
“Our hands and legs became manjettes everywhere,” Singh said, looking tired after the long journey when journalists fired questions against him, his wife and two children, who are milling around the yard in their one-story house at a wheat field.
“They didn’t unlock our cuffs even when we ate.”
India’s Foreign Minister, S Jaisankar, told Parliament that it was the standard practice for US immigration and customs authorities to limit deported, but that it was not done with women and children in the plane to India.
“Of course, we engage with the US government to ensure that returning deported are not abused in any way during the flight,” he said.
“At the same time, the house will appreciate our focus on the crash, strong crashes on the illegal migration industry while taking steps to facilitate visas for the legitimate traveler.”
He said Indian law enforcement agencies would act against agents organizing such immigration based on information from the returning. Jaiskankar said that more than 15,000 Indians in the last 16 years had been deported to India from the United States
One of them was Akashdeep Singh, 23, who reached the United States only last month after failing to secure a job in India. His agricultural family sold two tractors and some land and took loans to raise more than 6 million rupees for his illegal journey.
“Why should we send our kids outside? There are no jobs here,” said Singh’s father Swaran Singh. “We demand jobs for our kids, so we never have to send them away”.
