Amid outrage over the 104 Indians being chained and handcuffed while being deported on a flight to the north Indian city of Amritsar, the US Border Patrol shared a video on X that showed deportees being led into the plane to bring them back to the South Asian nation.
Posting a 24-second video on X, USBP Chief Michael W Banks posted: “… successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport. This mission underscores our commitment to enforcing immigration laws.”
A ‘warning’ accompanied the post: “If you cross illegally, you will be removed”.
The video, filmed late at night with chest-thumping music, showed the deportees being chained and handcuffed as they boarded the US military aircraft.
The migrants were seen in a shuffled walk more commonly associated with hardened criminals and, perhaps, prisoners of war.
After the migrants boarded the plane, several American soldiers are seen marching on board and the camera shifts to inside the plane, where the deportees are strapped into seats before the plane taxis for take-off.
The Indians were deported on a C-17 plane that took off from San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday.
The aircraft landed in the north Indian city of Amritsar on Wednesday.
Deported Indians claim they were chained throughout the entire journey
Now, the Indians, who arrived in Amritsar, recounted their harrowing experience of the 40-hour-long journey from the US to India.
The Indians claimed they were handcuffed and chained throughout the entire journey.
Congress MP says handcuffing was unnecessary
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said handcuffing and deporting the Indians in military flight was unnecessary.
Reacting to the reports, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told ANI, “It’s not the first time we have had people deported. It’s just that the media has suddenly woken up to this story because Mr Trump has done it a bit quicker than people expected.”
He said, “But already last year, under the Biden Administration, were over 1100 Indians being deported back.”
“If you are illegally in the US, the US has the right to deport you and if your identity as an Indian is confirmed then India has an obligation to accept you,” he said.
He said, “So, in both cases there really isn’t very much debate. However, it wasn’t good to hear that they were brought back forcibly in a military plane and handcuffed and so on.”
“That was quite unnecessary. It should have been enough to put them on a commercial aircraft or civilian aeroplane and send them back,” he said.
He said mass deportations should be done in civilian charters.
“That would have been the more humane thing to do,” he said.
