33 Illegal Indian Immigrants Sent to Delhi from U.S: Report

Thirty three Indian immigrants who were allegedly living illegally in the United States were dropped off by an unscheduled flight on Feb. 14 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, the Hindustan Times reported. The flight also had 121 Pakistani immigrants who were said to be illegally living in America.

The flight landed at 8.30 am and went ahead to Islamabad after dropping the Indians at New Delhi, a Central Industrial Security FOrce (CISF) officer was quoted as saying by HT. The flight left for Islamabad at 11.30 am.

“The flight landed at around 8:30 am on February 14. We were informed in advance about the movement of a large number of deportees. Officials from the External Affairs Ministry were present and facilitated the movement. After completing the formalities, the passengers were sent to their respective states,” the CISF officer said, according to the report.

Another CISF officer said that this was probably the first time that a special plane full of deportees landed at Delhi airport since usually Indians were deported in batches of two or three.

The United States has taken a strong stand against illegal immigrants since Donald Trump became the American president. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had recently conducted nationwide sweeps for illegal immigrants.

A Delhi Police officer said that there were no cases registered against the Indians.

“It was a chartered plane meant to transport deportees. We register cases only when a passenger cheats Indian immigration, which was not the case in this incident,” said the Delhi Police officer.

Immigrants who have been involved in any criminal conduct or could be a risk to public safety or national security are the ones that are deported.

An Indian official told the newspaper that deportation of the Indian immigrants has no connection to the Trump presidency since this is a routine process.

In 2017, 460 Indians were deported as compared to 353 in 2016, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data. The community facing most deportations in the United States are the Mexicans. As many as 128,765 Mexicans were deported in 2017, making up the most number of deportations from any country.