A C-17 transport plane from the US Air Force has taken off for India with illegal immigrants on board, according to news agency Reuters. It will arrive in at least twenty-four hours.
However, the number of people on this flight has not been confirmed yet. Reuters did not provide the time of the plane's takeoff.
Trump had promised to do the biggest deportation in the history of America. After this, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prepared a list of 15 lakh illegal immigrants, which also included 18,000 Indians.
1700 illegal immigrants detained in Trump's first 11 days
More than 25 thousand illegal immigrants were detained in the first 11 days of Trump taking power. Trump's ICE team (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) conducted raids in 12 states.
According to reports, most raids have occurred in Republican states. In these, 1700 illegal immigrants were detained.
During this period, incidents of infiltration from the Mexican border have decreased by 94%. During Biden's tenure, there were an average of 2087 incidents of infiltration every day between January 1 and January 19 this year, while after Trump took power, this figure came down to 126 from January 20 to January 31.
7.25 lakh illegal Indian immigrants in America
According to data from the Pew Research Center, about 7.25 lakh illegal Indian immigrants live in America. This figure is the third largest number of illegal immigrants. Mexico is in first place and El Salvador is in second.
Last month, the Indian government said that India has always been ready to take back Indian citizens living illegally in the US. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had said that India is investigating how many Indians are living illegally in the US and whether they can be sent back or not.
However, he also said that the exact number of such people could not be ascertained yet.
Immigrants from Guatemala, Peru, and Honduras were also deported.
The US Defense Ministry Pentagon has started providing help of military aircraft to send more than 5 thousand illegal immigrants detained in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California to their countries. So far, immigrants from Guatemala, Peru, and Honduras have been sent back from the US through military aircraft.
