S Jaishankar meets PM Modi amid deportation row; US embassy reacts

S Jaishankar

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar met prime minister Narendra Modi amid the issue around deportation of 104 Indians who entered USA illegally.

Jaishankar is also expected to deliver a statement in Rajya Sabha at 2pm today.

A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal immigrants from various states landed in Amristar on February 5, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump government as part of a crackdown against illegal immigrants.

"Inhumane treatment?"

Several of the deportees claimed they received inhuman treatment. They said that their hands and legs were cuffed throughout the journey and they were unshackled only after landing at Amritsar airport.

US Embassy responds

"United States is vigorously enforcing its border, tightening immigration laws, and removing illegal migrants. These actions send a clear message: illegal migration is not worth the risk," a US Embassy spokesperson said.

Chief of US Border Patrol Michael Banks said they and their partners "successfully returned illegal aliens to India." In a post on X, Banks said, "USBP and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport. This mission underscores our commitment to enforcing immigration laws and ensuring swift removals.

If you cross illegally, you will be removed."

USBP and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport. This mission underscores our commitment to enforcing immigration laws and ensuring swift removals.If you cross illegally, you will be removed. pic.twitter.com/WW4OWYzWOf
Chief Michael W. Banks (@USBPChief) February 5, 2025

Congress expresses anguish

Senior Congress leader and Chandigarh MP Tewari said, "This is absolutely inhuman to handcuff and shackle people, not allow them to even use the toilet for 40 hours while deporting them is medieval." "What is there crime? They went looking for a better life. They did it illegally but that does not make them criminals that they need to be bound hand and foot and treated worse than animals."

Questioning the Centre over the issue, Tewari asked what is the point of all the summits with US President Trump "...if @PMOIndia & @DrSJaishankar cannot ensure that our country men are not treated in the most humiliating and degrading manner."

First batch of Indian immigrants

Out of the 104, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh, news agency PTI reported. Nineteen women and 13 minors, including a four-year-old boy and two girls, aged five and seven, were among the deportees, the report added.