Trump administration begins deporting illegal migrants to India: Report

 A US military flight carrying illegal migrants left for India on Monday as the Trump administration intensified its crackdown against ~11 million undocumented migrants in the US. The C-17 aircraft has departed for India and would not arrive back in the States for at least 24 hours, news agency Reuters reported citing officials. 

It, however, remains unclear how many were aboard the departing flight. India is the furthest destination for US military flights deporting illegals, with over 5,000 migrants being sent from El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.

Previously, flights have transported migrants to Guatemala, Peru, and Honduras. As per the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), around 18,000 undocumented Indian nationals are among the 1.5 million individuals marked for deportation. 

Overall, around 725,000 illegal immigrants from India live in the States, making it the third largest population of unauthorised immigrants after Mexico and El Salvador. US President Donald Trump launched military deportation flights last week as part of his emergency declaration on immigration. 

So far, 6 flights have been sent to Latin America. Trump has pledged to crack down on illegal immigration by launching the largest deportation programme in US history.

"For the first time in history, we are locating and loading illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came," Trump said last month. 

After a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump said that Modi "will do what's right" when it came to taking back illegal immigrants from India. Moreover, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India was scrutinising who from the US can be deported to the country, while adding the number of such people could not yet be determined. 

"With every country, and the US is no exception, we have always maintained that if any of our citizens are there illegally, and if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been open to their legitimate return to India."

He added that it is well understood that the occurrence of illegal activities often leads to the proliferation of additional unlawful actions, which is highly undesirable. Such situations can significantly tarnish reputations.

Therefore, in every country, including the United States, we have consistently asserted that if any of our citizens are present illegally and we can confirm their identity as our citizens, we remain receptive to facilitating their lawful return to India, he stated.