At least 104 Indian citizens were deported from the United States Tuesday night on a military aircraft, according to officials from India's Punjab state, as US President Donald Trump makes stemming migration a top priority. The C-17 aircraft, carrying migrants mainly from India's Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab states, landed Wednesday afternoon local time in the northwest city of Amritsar, Punjab officials said. It marked the longest distance flight since the Trump administration began deploying military aircraft for migrant transportation, according to a US official. Friends and family of some of the returnees told CNN of the hardships the deportees faced to get to the US, only for them to be sent back soon after arrival. Manriasat Singh, whose 23-year-old cousin Akashdeep Singh was among those on the deportation flight, told CNN that Akashdeep "sounded low." Akashdeep left for the US seven months ago, spending nearly $60,000 for the journey that his father had acquired by selling two-thirds of their land, his cousin told CNN. Shortly after Akashdeep's arrival to the US in January, he was detained and deported from there, his cousin said. "His parents are happy that he has not spent ten years in jail and is returning. At least he is alive," Manriasat added. Akashdeep's story is not unique. In just four years, the number of Indian citizens entering the US illegally has surged dramatically — from 8,027 in the 2018 to 2019 fiscal year to 96,917 during 2022 to 2023 period, government data showed. Young Indians looking for work opportunities have made up a sizeable portion of undocumented migrants in the US, some of whom are making the dangerous trek through Latin America to reach the US southern border. Lakbhir Singh, a former Punjab village leader, knows one of the deported Indian citizens. He said the repatriated man's "family is distraught." The family had sold their property and spent thousands of dollars "to send their son abroad and the boy came back," Lakbhir said. He said unemployment was driving young people in his area to leave. "The youth want to live a good life," he said. "The government should do something about it, instead of flashing their names and villages on television. They should deal with the problem at the core of it." While the Indian government has announced their intent to receive its deported citizens back, local leaders are calling for greater measures to be taken to address the root of the problem. "This is my request to the federal government," the Punjab State Minister of Non-resident Indian Affairs, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, said to local media on Wednesday after meeting the deported individuals. "I especially request that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sit with the US President Donald Trump and find a solution to whatever is happening or is going to happen." — CNN
