A US military aircraft began deporting Indian migrants, according to news agency Reuters, as part of President Donald Trump's strict immigration policies targeting approximately 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.
Details On Deportation Of Indian Migrants
An anonymous official told Reuters that a C-17 aircraft had departed for India, with arrival expected in over 24 hours. India is the farthest destination yet for US military deportation flights. The Pentagon has reported plans to deport over 5,000 migrants from El Paso, Texas and San Diego, California, with previous military flights sending migrants to Guatemala, Peru and Honduras.
Trump launched these military deportation flights last week under his emergency declaration on immigration, with six planeloads of migrants already sent to Latin America. However, only four reached their destinations, all landing in Guatemala. Colombia refused to allow two US military aircraft to land and instead deployed its own planes to repatriate its citizens, leading to a brief standoff with Trump.
"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 told reporters last month.
After a discussion with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump stated that Modi "will do what’s right" in taking back illegal Indian immigrants from the US. According to Bloomberg News, around 18,000 Indians have been identified as undocumented migrants in the country. Indians also constitute a significant portion of recipients of the US H-1B skilled worker visa program.
Trump's Focus On Mass Deportation
Trump’s focus on deportations follows his first-day promise in office to remove millions and millions of undocumented migrants. Shortly after he took office, the US Congress approved a bill mandating the detention and deportation of unauthorised migrants charged with specific crimes. During his campaign, Trump had pledged, "When I am reelected, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history."
The US President has previously used the military to enforce his immigration policies, deploying troops to the US-Mexico border, utilizing military bases to house migrants, and now using military aircraft for deportations. However, Reuters reported that a recent military deportation flight to Guatemala cost an estimated USD 4,675 per migrant, over five times the USD 853 price of a first-class ticket from El Paso, Texas, on American Airlines. The cost is also significantly higher than that of commercial charter flights typically arranged by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Tariff War Ignited By Trump
Beyond immigration, Trump has also introduced new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, with potential measures against Europe in progress. Canada secured a temporary one-month delay on the tariffs by committing USD 1.3 billion in measures to curb drug trafficking and illegal migration at the northern border. Mexico, too, avoided immediate tariff hikes by deploying 10,000 troops to its border with the US.
Starting Tuesday, a 25 percent tariff increase on imports from Mexico and Canada was set to take effect due to continued concerns over undocumented migration and drug smuggling. Meanwhile, a lower 10 percent tariff hike on Chinese imports is also scheduled, though no preemptive negotiations have taken place.
