'Illegal aliens': US Border Patrol chief shares video featuring illegal Indian immigrants in shackles

Michael W Banks, the chief of the US Border Patrol (USBP) on Thursday shared a video showing the deportation of illegal Indian immigrants from the US aboard a US military aircraft. In this video, deportees' hands were cuffed and their legs shackled as they entered the aircraft. 

The video came a day after 104 illegal immigrants arrived in Amritsar onboard a C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US Air Force. Of these deportees, 19 were women and 13 minors. 

Sharing the 24-second video on X (formerly Twitter), Banks wrote: "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."

The deportees claimed that their hands were cuffed and their legs shackled throughout the journey from San Antonio to Amritsar. They said that they were unshackled only upon landing in Amritsar. 

Some also claimed that they did not know where they were being taken and actually thought that they were being taken to some other camp. Most of the deportees were caught at the US-Mexico border. 

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Parliament that the deportees returning from the US were not mistreated on the flight. The minister further mentioned that all countries are obliged to take back their nationals if it is found that they are living abroad illegally. 

He also highlighted that the flight which landed in Amritsar on February 5 was as per the set out protocol. The Centre is also considering a new law to regulate migration for overseas jobs with an aim to ensure safer and more organised movement of workers.

The proposed Overseas Mobility (Facilitation and Welfare) Bill, 2024 — intended to replace the four-decade-old Emigration Act of 1983 — came up in a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs chaired by Shashi Tharoor. 

The committee stressed on the urgency of modernising the country's migration laws. It also mentioned that despite repeated calls for reform, the progress on the issue was slow.