Amid the controversy over illegal immigrants from India being handcuffed and chained during their deportation flight from the US, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that deportations were not new. Jaishankar, who addressed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, said the US has deported a total of 15,756 Indians who entered the country illegally since 2009.
According to government data, the US deported 734 illegal immigrants from India in 2009, 799 in 2010, 597 in 2011, 530 in 2012, and 515 in 2013.
In 2014, 591 illegal immigrants from India were deported by the US, followed by 708 in 2015. In 2016, a total of 1,303 were deported, 1,024 in 2017, and 1,180 in 2018.
The highest deportation was witnessed in 2019, with 2,042 illegal Indian immigrants being sent back to the country. In 2020, the deportation number was 1,889; 805 in 2021; 862 in 2022; 617 in 2023; 1,368 last year, and 104 so far this year.
It is estimated that there are over seven lakh Indians who are currently living in the US illegally, making them the third-largest population of undocumented immigrants in the country after Mexico and El Salvador.
According to recent reports, the Trump administration has identified some 18,000 undocumented immigrants from India to be deported.
On Tuesday, the US deported 104 Indian nationals, most of whom were caught on the US-Mexico border recently, back to India.
A C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US military, which took off from Texas on Tuesday, landed at Amritsar airport on Wednesday carrying 33 illegal immigrants from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.
On the issue of illegal immigration, Jaishankar said the focus should be on the crackdown on the illegal migration industry. Most Indians who illegally immigrate to the US follow dunki routes and pay anywhere between Rs 40-60 lakhs to human traffickers who promise to help them cross the border safely.
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