US arrested most of Indian deportees from Mexico border; will they face legal troubles in India?

Most of the 104 illegal Indian immigrants deported by the US on Wednesday (February 5) on a military flight were reportedly arrested at the country’s southern border with Mexico. A report by India Today said none of the deportees have any criminal record in India and they must have used legal routes to leave the country.

However, Indian security agencies and police departments will again verify whether they have any past criminal record. Earlier in the day, a C-17 US military aircraft landed in India’s Amritsar city at around 2 am IST. The plane carried 33 people from Haryana, 33 from Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and two from Chandigarh.

Earlier, Indian national daily Hindustan Times quoted a senior minister from the northern state of Punjab as saying that most of the deportees had entered the US with valid work permits.

Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, the NRI affairs minister, also added that some of them may have taken the ‘donkey route’, referring to illegal pathways.

India lacks legislation that criminalises attempting illegal entry to foreign nations. It means the deportees won’t face any legal trouble or arrests.

According to media reports, the passports of the 104 people would be verified by the Indian authorities. If passports were not available, biometrics of the deportees would be used for identification. Reports indicate that there could be more than 725,000 undocumented Indian nationals in the US, making up the third-largest group of illegal immigrants, following Mexico and El Salvador.

The Wednesday flight is the first such deportation move targeting Indian immigrants under the new US administration amid a broader push that might affect thousands of people from various nationalities.

The move comes just days before a scheduled meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US president in Washington DC.