People from Punjab comprise the biggest chunk of the Indians being deported by the US, government sources said today – days after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s objection to the flights landing in his state. The government has clarified the situation about the handcuffs, with foreign minister S Jaishankar saying there are provisions for it in rules for deportation.

Donald Trump’s campaign promises included a crackdown on illegal immigrants, and since his inauguration, three military aircraft have arrived in India carrying deportees.

After the first flight landed on February 5, Bhagwant Mann accused the Centre of trying to defame Punjab and said a holy city like Amritsar should not be made a “deport centre”. This flight had 30 deportees from Punjab and 33 each from Haryana and Gujarat.

Sources said since May 2020, 21 flights have been landed in Amritsar. 
Three flights arrived on February 5, February 15 and February 16 in which 333 Indians were sent. Of them, 262 were men, 42 women, 18 boys and 11 girls. 

Among them, the maximum people – 126 or 37.8 per cent – were from Punjab. The next was Haryana, whose 110 residents comprised 33 per cent of the passengers. Seventy-four passengers, 22 per cent, were from Gujarat. The rest were from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Goa and 1 each from Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

The rules for deporting illegal immigrants have been mentioned in the handbook issued by USICE in 2015, sources said.

It is clearly written there that under the policy of November 2012, people being sent by ICE planes will be sent in handcuffs. The US has followed the same policy while sending Indians.

Following opposition parties’ protest about the handcuffing of the deportees, foreign minister S Jaishankar told parliament on February 6 that the government was engaging with the US to ensure that deported Indians are not mistreated.