Khusbu Patel, a 29-year-old woman from Gujarat’s Vadodara, was among 104 mostly restrained deportees who landed at the Amritsar airport 40 hours after they were put on a cramped military plane amid newly-elected US President Donald Trump’s sweeping undocumented immigration crackdown. She underwent hours of scrutiny along with the other deportees before returning home from Amritsar, over 1,200 km away, traumatised and withdrawn.
“My sister was treated like a prisoner. She is in trauma,” said Khusbu Patel’s brother, Varun Patel. He added they have not spoken much with her sister since she returned after a prolonged ordeal. “She needs rest,” said Varun Patel. He added his sister travelled to the US via Europe about a month ago and that the journey lasted four days.
Khusbu Patel’s family said they could never imagine the ordeal she underwent, maintaining she travelled to the US on a tourist visa. “We do not know why the US government deported her. She travelled on a tourist visa. Only they [the US government] can say what document she lacked,” said Varun Patel.
Khusbu Patel was among 33 deportees from Gujarat, who arrived in Amritsar on the farthest deportation flight yet on the military’s C-17 transport plane. The flight did not show up on public flight trackers. Media reports suggested it took off from Texas’s San Antonio.
Ten of the Gujarati deportees are from Mehsana, 13 from Gandhinagar, four from Patan, two from Ahmedabad, and one each from Vadodara, Anand, Bharuch, and Banaskantha.
Kanubhai Patel, the father of 28-year-old deportee Nikita Patel, said his daughter had gone to Europe a few weeks back. He added he learned about her deportation from media reports. “I had no contact with her for the past few days,” he said.
The mother of Karansinh Gohil, 34, who was deported with his wife and child, said she had lost contact with them after they left for the US.
The list of deportees included 34-year-old woman Rishitaben Patel from Naridpura but residents said they were unaware of any such person. Former village head Rajubhai Patel said nearly a quarter of the people from the village now live in the US. “Many have become citizens by now.” He referred to illegal immigration and said some sold land and others took loans. “I do not think this will stop so easily,” he said.
Piyush Patel, a farmer, said agents will go underground and return in a year. “There will again be a mad rush to reach the US, legally or illegally.”
Tragedies during desperate attempts to reach the US and Canada over the last few years have turned the spotlight on risky immigration attempts. In March 2023, a family of four from Gujarat’s Mehsana drowned while trying to cross the St Lawrence River from Canada to the US. HT last year reported many people from villages stretching from Kadi, Kalol to Mehsana have taken illegal routes to the US and Europe. Agents often use their connections to establish emigrants as tourists before assisting them in crossing into the US from Mexico or Canada.
In December 2023, French authorities uncovered a human trafficking operation involving 303 Indians on a Dubai-Nicaragua Legend Airways flight grounded in Vatry. Of the 276 passengers deported to India from France, 66 were from Gujarat.
People aware of the matter said most deportees flown to Amritsar are believed to have been detained after trying to cross the US borders illegally over the past few months.
Undocumented Indian immigrants have been regularly deported but it was the first time the US used a military aircraft to do so. The new US administration has roped in the military for its anti-immigration agenda. It has also opened military bases to lodge undocumented immigrants.
All deportees, barring children and women, were handcuffed during the 40-hour flight and subjected to scrutiny at Amritsar airport before police escorted them out in small groups in their vehicles.
The US Border Patrol (USBP) said it successfully returned “illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport. USBP chief Michael Banks in a post on X on Wednesday warned if anyone crosses into the US illegally, they will be removed. He posted a video showing some men being led into a military plane in handcuffs and legs in chains.
The mistreatment of the deportees sparked a furore. Opposition parties demanded a discussion in Parliament over how the deportees were treated a day after the US military plane brought them to Amritsar.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday told parliament that India was engaging with the US to ensure that undocumented Indian immigrants were not mistreated. He said the process of deportation was not a new one and it allows for the use of restraints on immigrants before they return to their home countries. Jaishankar said hundreds of Indians have been deported annually for years.
