In line with US President Donald Trump's pledge to carry out the largest deportation in American history, a United States military flight carrying illegal migrant꧟s departed for India on Monday.
Citing an official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Reuters reported that the C-17 aircraft had dജeparted for India with migrants aboard but would not arrive for at least 24 hours.
Citing the data by Pew Research Center, India Today reported that approximately 725,000 illegal immigrants from India currently live in the US,🌼 making it the third-largest population oꦜf unauthorised immigrants after Mexico and El Salvador.
The deportation of💃 the illegal migrants came as part of Donald Trump's intensified crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Under Trump administration, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reportedly compiled an initial list of nearly 18,000 undocumented Indian nationals, among 1.5 million individuals marked for deportation.
Trump Administration's Deportation Drive
US Pr꧂esident Donald Trump launched the military deportation flights last week as part of his emergency declaration on immigration, s✨o far sending six planeloads of migrants on flights to Latin America.
As per reports, The Pentagon so far has started providing flights to deport more than 5,000 immigrants from El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California. So far, military air🥀craft have flown migrants to Guatemala, Peru and Honduras.
"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, as per an NDTV report.
India's Reaction To Deportation Drive
Responding to Trump's announcement of the strict deportation drive, New Delhi responded that India has always🌸 been open to the legitimate return of undocumented Indians 🌊;to their country when asked about deportation plans from the US.
External Affairs Ministe🍸r S Jaishankar 🙈had said that India was verifying who from the US can be deported to India, and the number of such individuals cannot yet be determined.
"With every country, and the US is no exception, we have always maintained that if any of our citizens are there illegally, a🗹nd if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been open to their legitimate return to India," Jaishankar said.
After a phone call with PM Modi, Trump asserted that the India prime minister "will do what's right" when it comes to taking back illegal Indian immigrants from A🍃merica.
