19 women and 13 children, including a 4-year-old boy, were among the Indians deported from the United States; the deportees said they were not informed of their destination during the 40-hour flight.
Days after being detained by the U.S. Border Security Police on January 22, 2025, 18-year-old Robin Handa arrived in Amritsar on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, with his hands in handcuffs, his feet bound with ropes, and his face hidden under a mask. In response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough stance on illegal immigration, he was one of 104 Indians who were deported from the United States and returned to India on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, aboard an American military plane.
Many of the deportees who talked to The Hindu as they arrived at their hometowns on Thursday (February 6, 2025) reported that he was accompanied by 19 women and 13 youngsters, including a 4-year-old boy, who were all handcuffed and had their ankles tied with rope for approximately 36 to 40 hours.
After completing a study in Computer Science at the Industrial Training Institute in Ambala, Mr. Handa’s father, a motor electrician, borrowed ₹30 lakh to send his son to the United States. Mr. Handa stated, “My father saved more than ₹15 lakh from selling land and borrowed ₹30 lakh to pay an agent who said he would send me to the U.S. through the U.K., only to have me returned to the country chained like an animal.” He went on to say that he had only made the “expensive” trip to the United States after realising that he had no work in his area and no chance of earning a good living.
On July 24, my agent told me to catch a flight from Mumbai to Ghana, but in contrast to what he had promised, I was driven to Brazil. To go to Peru, then Ecuador and Colombia, and finally the U.S.-Mexico border, where I was arrested on January 22, I had to cross seas, wade through rivers, and go through the Amazon rainforests, Mr. Handa said. He claimed that despite his agent’s assurance that he would arrive in a month via the “donkey route,” it took him about six months, during which he frequently went without adequate nourishment. He went on to say, “Anyone who became ill was abandoned to fend for themselves while crossing hilly terrain or the seas.”
Similar to Mr. Handa, Omi Devi, 45, her husband, and their two teenagers had chosen to travel to the United States via the “donkey route.” “Omi’s oldest daughter is currently enrolled in school in California.” Hours after meeting them at their Kurukshetra house, Ms. Devi’s brother Rajesh Kumar told The Hindu, “The kids were dreaming about starting their lives there and the family thought it would be best to earn some dollars and come back to India.” The family’s main provider, Ms. Devi’s husband Paramjeet, had been making a living from farming.
For a month, Ms. Devi and her family journeyed to Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, and Italy. She informed her brother, “On January 23, we entered the United States close to Tijuana, and within hours, we were apprehended by uniformed men who didn’t look like the police.” They were detained in a camp with six-by-six-foot huts for ten days.
Snacks and cookies were provided to us throughout the day. While Paramjeet slept in his own cabin, the children shared a bed with me. Our legs were shackled and we were handcuffed when we were asked to enter the bus. They were only uncuffed a few times during the roughly 40-hour flight, she added, adding, “We didn’t even know we were headed back to India until we landed in Amritsar.”
Mr. Handa, who was sleep deprived, remembers being taken to a camp in Santiago and held there for more than ten days. In addition, he claimed how being handcuffed inside the plane made him feel like a “chained animal.” The women and children also had their legs bound with ropes and were shackled. Sikhs were only permitted to don their turbans after landing, and they were requested to take them off,” he continued.
Harwinder Singh, a resident of Hoshiarpur, Punjab, told The Hindu that he only paid his agent ₹42 lakh after the latter assured him of a work visa to the United States. “I found myself and many others like me scaling mountains and crossing seas on foot after two consecutive flights, from Delhi to Qatar to Brazil, after I was told at the last minute that the work visa did not come through,” Mr. Singh said. Mr. Singh was taken by cab to Colombia and then to Panama, where he and many other immigrants were placed on a boat to the Mexican border, despite being informed that he would be travelling by plane from Brazil to Peru.