Screengrab from the video
Credit: X/@WhiteHouse
Amid the current deportation of illegal immigrants from the US to India, the White House on Tuesday shared a video on X, titled "ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight", which shows immigrants tied in shackles and boarding a deportation flight.
The video highlights the strict immigration policies of the Trump administration, and also fuels a debate on how deportees are treated.
The 41-second video clip shows officers preparing for the deportation wherein they are seen laying hand-cuffs, chaining the deportees, followed by an individual boarding the aircraft, ready to be deported. However, the faces of the deportees’ are not visible in the entire video clip.
The video has gone viral and has also been retweeted by Elon Musk, wherein he responded with “Haha wow”.
Over 300 illegal immigrants have been deported to India by the US in the last few days. The most recent one was on February 16, wherein a US military aircraft carrying 112 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar airport, the third such plane bringing deportees amid a crackdown by the Donald Trump administration against illegal immigrants.
The third batch of deportees landed in Amritsar within 24 hours of another US military aircraft bringing the second such batch.
On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying the first batch of 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar. Of the deportees in the first batch, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, and 30 from Punjab.
On February 15 evening, a second aircraft brought 116 deportees from the United States, amid questions raised by several political leaders, including Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, over the BJP-led Centre's move to allow planes carrying immigrants to land in Amritsar.
Sourav (20), who reached Chandiwala village in Ferozepur district on Sunday, told reporters that they were shackled en route to Amritsar. "We were handcuffed and our legs chained," he said.
(With PTI inputs)