US deports 205 Indian migrants on military aircraft amid immigration crackdown
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New Delhi: US President Donald Trump's hardline approach on undocumented migrants saw the C-17 aircraft carrying 205 Indian nationals from San Antonio, Texas departing around 3 am IST, NDTV reported.
The Indian government reportedly verified all Indians on board the flight with the country being the farthest destination of US military flights deporting migrants.
Meanwhile the Pentagon stated that flights would deport over 5,000 migrants from El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.
Since launching the military deportation flights last week, six planeloads of migrants have been sent to Latin American countries including Guatemala, Peru and Honduras.
Of them only four landed, all in Guatemala, just as Colombia refused to allow two US C-17 cargo aircraft to land.
Following a standoff with Trump, the country sent its own planes to collect migrants.
‘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 was quoted as saying.
Following a call with PM Modi a few days ago, President Trump said that the Indian prime minister promised that India ‘will do what's right’ regarding illegal Indian immigrants in America.
It is reported citing Bloomberg News that India and the US have identified some 18,000 Indian migrants in the country.
During campaign Trump promised that ‘when I am reelected, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history,’ later taking office he said that he would deport ‘millions and millions’ of migrants.
Days after saying this, the US Congress approved a bill for detention and deportation of undocumented migrants entering the country alongside charging them with certain crimes.
It is reported that using military deportation flights is expensive with Reuters reporting week that a military deportation flight to Guatemala cost at least $4,675 per migrant.
It is five times the $853 cost of a first class one-way ticket on American Airlines from El Paso, Texas, according to the report.