US military flight deports migrants to India ahead of Modi-Trump meeting

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the C-17 aircraft had departed for India with migrants aboard but would not arrive for at least 24 hours.

New Delhi: The United States has deported over 200 Indian illegal immigrants ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington DC for a meeting with President Donald Trump.

A C-17 aircraft of the US Air Force took off from an airbase in Texas early Tuesday with 205 Indians onboard as they “failed to establish the legal basis to continue their stay” in America. The aircraft is expected to take more than 24 hours to reach India. India’s missions in the United States confirmed the nationality of the deportees before they were made to embark on the flight back home. They were the first batch of over 2500 Indian illegal migrants held in detention centres in the US.

The tough move by the Trump Administration is intended to send out a message that “the illegal migration to the US is not worth the risk”, the American Embassy in New Delhi stated.

This was the first deportation of people, who illegally migrated from India to the US, after Trump’s return to the White House on January 20. The move by the US authorities came even as New Delhi and Washington DC started preparation for Modi’s visit to the White House from February 12 to 14 for his meeting with Trump.

Neither New Delhi nor Washington DC officially confirmed the departure of the deportation flight from Texas. Sources in New Delhi, however, told DH that the Modi Government was cooperating with the Trump Administration for the deportation of illegal migrants, who had been held in detention centres in the US, had exhausted all legal options to avoid repatriation and confirmed to be citizens of India.

The C-17 aircraft of the US Air Force that took off from a military airbase in Texas may land in Amritsar, although neither side officially confirmed its destination in India.

A strong anti-immigrant narrative was at the core of Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign for his return to the office of the US president.

The issue of irregular migration from India to the US had figured prominently in the Trump Administration’s first engagement with New Delhi.

A day after Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the US, his Secretary of State Marco Rubio had his first bilateral meeting with India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Washington D.C. on January 21. Rubio “emphasized the Trump Administration’s desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration”.

Jaishankar conveyed to Rubio that New Delhi was very firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration, and it had always been open to the legitimate return of illegal migrants who would be confirmed to be genuine citizens of India.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a recent report revealed that while nearly 1.4 million illegal immigrants in America had been served final removal orders, about 17940 of them were citizens of India. It also noted that 2647 illegal immigrants from India were already in the detention centres.

Nearly 10.5 million unauthorised immigrants in the US represented about 3% of the country’s total population in 2021. The Pew Research Centre estimated that nearly 725,000 Indians had been illegally staying in the US four years back – the third such community of undocumented migrants after the Mexicans (4.1 million) and Salvadorans (800,000).

The number of illegal immigrants from India encountered by the American authorities on the US borders grew from 8027 between September 2018 and October 2019 to 96917 during the corresponding period in 2022-23. A total of 519 Indians were deported from America between November 2023 and October 2024 through commercial and chartered flights, the Ministry of External Affairs informed the Lok Sabha last month quoting from the US government data.

“The US is vigorously enforcing its border, tightening immigration laws, and removing illegal migrants,” a spokesperson of the American Embassy in New Delhi said, adding: “These actions send a clear message: illegal migration is not worth the risk.” The spokesperson, however, did not comment specifically on the military aircraft that left the US for India early on Monday.

The US had last deported Indian illegal migrants on October 22, 2024, albeit on a chartered aircraft.

The Trump Administration started using military aircraft to deport people staying in the US unlawfully to signal its tough stand against illegal migration and its commitment to ensure their speedy deportation. The aircraft provided by the US Department of Defence were recently used to deport illegal migrants to Guatemala, Peru and Honduras.

Colombia initially refused to accept two US military aircraft with deportees. The Trump Administration threatened to impose 25% tariffs on exports from Columbia to the US and warned of other sanctions. Colombia then sent its own military aircraft to bring back its nationals staying illegally in the US.

New Delhi apparently gave its consent to Washington DC for the use of US military aircraft to deport illegal migrants, confirmed to be citizens of India.

It is not yet known the manner the US deported illegal immigrants to India. Brazil recently protested when a plane from the US arrived with deportees handcuffed and shackled.

India will do what is right on the issue of taking back its citizens who illegally migrated to the US States, Trump said after a phone call with Modi on January 27.