As part of US President Donald Trump’s tough stance against an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the country, a US military plane started deporting Indian migrants.
Around three in the morning IST, the C-17 plane carrying 205 Indian people took off from San Antonio, Texas. According to sources, the Indian government confirmed every Indian passenger on the flight.
With the Pentagon announcing planes to deport more than 5,000 migrants from El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California, India is the farthest destination for US military flights to deport migrants. Military planes have transported migrants to Honduras, Guatemala, and Peru thus far.
As part of his immigration emergency declaration, Trump began the military deportation flights last week and has now sent six planeloads of migrants to Latin America. Only four landed, all of them in Guatemala, after Colombia refused to let two US C-17 cargo aircraft land and instead sent its own planes to collect migrants following a 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.
Following a phone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the US President had declared that the latter “will do what’s right” in terms of removing illegal Indian immigrants from the country. According to Bloomberg News, the US and India have identified about 18,000 undocumented Indian migrants in the US. Indians account for the bulk of the skilled worker H-1B visas issued by the United States.
The border controls and deportations follow Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border and his vow to deport “millions and millions” of migrants on his first day in office. A bill that would mandate the detention and deportation of undocumented migrants who enter the country without authorization and are accused of specific offenses was approved by the US Congress the day he took office. Even during his campaign trail, he had said, “When I am reelected, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history.”
Trump has often used the military to implement his immigration agenda. He has sent troops to the US Mexico border, used military bases to house migrants and military aircraft to fly them out of the US. However, Reuters reported that a military deportation flight to Guatemala last week likely cost at least $4,675 per migrant. That is more than five times the $853 cost of a one-way first class ticket on American Airlines from El Paso, Texas, news agency AFP reported. It is also significantly higher than the cost of a commercial charter flight by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Trump imposed a series of tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico in addition to immigration, and he said that similar actions are being considered for Europe. In a brief reprieve, Canada promised $1.3 billion for efforts to stem the flow of narcotics and unauthorized migrants into the US through the northern border, delaying tariff hikes on the country by one month. Mexico won itself a similar reprieve earlier with the commitment of 10,000 troops to its border with the US.
Due to the influx of illegal immigrants and drugs into the United States across national borders, additional 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico were set to take effect on Tuesday. There were no discussions prior to the upcoming lower 10% raise in China.
