With hands and legs cuffed and carrying the weight of failed dreams on their shoulders, the deportees arrived at the Amritsar airport, unsure what life held for them.
The memories of hardship and betrayal will haunt them forever. Perhaps, they’ll also reflect whether trusting unscrupulous agents for their US aspirations was really worth the risk.
The deportees were part of the first group of Indian nationals to be returned under President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. According to reports, the group hailed from various parts of India, with 33 individuals each from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, as well as smaller numbers from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Chandigarh.
One deportee shared his traumatic experience with a media house. A travel agent duped him of Rs 30 lakh by assuring a legal route to the US. Instead of providing the promised visa, the agent arranged for him to cross the border illegally by taking an illegal route.
After spending months in Brazil, he was apprehended by the US Border Patrol on January 24 and held for 11 days before being deported.
Another deportee travelled several countries, including Qatar, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Panama, and Nicaragua to somehow enter the US. He revealed that he nearly drowned during the journey and witnessed a person die in the jungle of Panama, a trauma that he has to live with forever. The cost of his journey amounted to Rs 42 lakh he received as loan. His dreams ended in Mexico, where he was detained before being sent back to India.
The deportees’ return came at a politically significant moment, as the U.S. military plane landed in Amritsar just before high-level diplomatic talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump. Upon landing, local authorities questioned the deportees to ensure there were no criminal backgrounds before escorting them back to their hometowns in Punjab.
The journey back to India was a difficult emotional return to reality for many of the deportees, in addition to being a physical one.
Their experiences serve as a sobering reminder of the lengths people would go to in an attempt to improve their life, only to encounter the harsh realities of a dysfunctional system. Their stories illustrate the hard fact that the path to a new life is paved with far more danger than promise, whether through deceptive scams, dangerous travel, or the enormous odds against them. Deportation was not only the end of these people’s hopes; it was also the start of a protracted and uncertain battle to reconstruct lives that had been destroyed before they had ever begun.
Also Read: Deported from US, 33 Gujaratis Arrive in Ahmedabad
