The migrants were deported in chains: ‘Anyone will illegally go to us now’

Gurpreet Singh was handcuffed, shaken his feet and a chain was tied around his waist. He was moved to a waiting C -17 military transport aircraft by the US border petrol on Termac in Texas.

It was 3 February and after a long journey of a month, he realized that his dream of living in America was over. He was being sent back to India. “It seemed that the ground was slipping from under my feet,” he said.

Gurpreet, 39, was one of thousands of Indians in recent years, who spent his life savings and crossed the continent to illegally enter America through his southern border, as he demanded a unemployment crisis to escape.

According to the most recent figures of Pew Research in 2022, around 725,000 unspecified Indian immigrants in the US are the third largest group behind Mexican and Al Salvadorians.

Now Gurpreet President Donald Trump has become one of the first unlike Indians to be sent home since he took over, promising a large -scale exile.

Gurpreet intended to claim an asylum on the basis of those dangers, he said that he had received in India, but – accordingly An executive order from Trump to remove people without giving shelter to people – He said that his case was ever removed without considering.

During the tenure of President Biden, about 3,700 Indians were sent back to charter and commercial flights, but recent images of prisoners in chains under the Trump administration have expressed displeasure in India.

The US border petrol released images in an online video with a bombardment coral soundtrack and warning: “If you cross illegally, you will be removed.”

Gurpreet told the BBC back in India, “We were sitting in handcuffs and huts for more than 40 hours. Even women were tied in the same way. Only children were only independent.” “We were not allowed to stand. If we wanted to use the toilet, we were saved by the US forces, and one of our handcuffs was removed.”

Opposition parties protested in Parliament, saying that Indian exile was given “inhuman and derogatory treatment”. “There are many things about how Prime Minister Modi and Mr. Trump are good friends. Then why did Mr. Modi allow it?” Priyanka Gandhi Wadra, a prominent opposition leader, said.

Gurpreet said: “The Government of India should have said something on our behalf. They should be asked to complete the exile, the way it was done earlier, without handcuffs and chains.”

A spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry said that the government has raised these concerns with the US, and as a result, on later flights, women’s exiles were not handcuffed and shake.

But on the ground, intimidating images and President Trump’s rhetoric have the desired effect.

Gurpreet said, “No one will try to go to America through this illegal ‘donkey’ route, while Trump is in power.”

In the long term, it may depend on whether there are constant exile, but now Indian people are locally called “agents”, fear of raiding against them by the Indian police, hiding.

Gurpreet said that Indian authorities demanded the number of agents when he had returned home, but the smuggler could not reach yet.

Gurpreet said, “I don’t blame him, although we were thirsty and went into the well. They did not come to us.”

While the official headline figure Unemployment rate at only 3.2%This hides a more uncertain picture for many Indians. Only 22% of workers have regular salary, majority are self-employed and are about the fifth “unpaid assistant”, including women working in family businesses.

Gurpreet said, “We only leave India because we are forced. If I got a job, which I also paid Rs 30,000 (£ 270/$ 340) in a month, my family will be found. I never thought of leaving,” a wife, a mother and a 18 -month -old child to take care of a child, a mother and an 18 -month -old child.

“You can say that whatever you want about the economy on paper, but you need to see reality on the ground. There are no opportunities for us to work or run business.”

The trucking company of Gurite was one of the cash-dependent small businesses when the Government of India withdrew 86% of the currency in vogue with a four-hour notice. He said that he was not paid by his customers, and there was no money to preserve the business. He said that another small business that he managed to manage logistics for other companies, also failed due to the Kovid lockdown.

He said that he tried to get a visa to go to Canada and UK, but his applications were rejected.

He then took all his savings, sold a plot of land owned by him, and borrowed money from relatives, who placed 4 million rupees ($ 45,000/£ 36,000) together to pay a smuggler to organize their journey.

On 28 August 2024, he flew from India to Guyana from India to Guyana to start a difficult journey from the United States.

Gurpreet told all the stops made on a map on her phone. From Guyana, he traveled via Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Columbia, mostly buses and cars, partially by boat, and briefly on an aircraft – handed over from a people -mosaller to another, was detained and released for some time by officials.

From Colombia, smugglers tried to fly her to Mexico, so that she could avoid crossing the dreaded darien gap. But the Colombian immigration did not allow him to ride on the flight, so he had to make a dangerous trek through the forest.

A dense expansion of rainforest between Colombia and Panama, the Darin Gap can only be crossed on foot, risk attacks by accidents, illness and criminal gangs. Last year, 50 people who made crossings died.

“I was not afraid. I have been a player so I thought I would be fine. But it was the most difficult section,” Gurprati said. “We lasted for five days through forests and rivers. In many parts, walking through the river, water came to my chest.”

Each group was accompanied by a smuggler – or Gurpreet and other migrants refer to them as a “donor”, a word obtained from the word “donkey passage” a word that is used for illegal migration journey.

At night they will pitch tent in the forest, eat a little food that they were carrying and tried to rest.

He said, “It was raining all those days. We were wet with our bones.” He was directed to three mountains in his first two days. After that, he said that he was to follow a route marked by smugglers in blue plastic bags tied to trees.

“My legs started to look like lead. My sorcery was torn, and the palms of my hands were peeled and there were thorns in them. Still, we were lucky that we did not face any robbers.”

When he reached Panama, Gurpreet said that he and about 150 others were detained by the border officials at the center of a tight jail. After 20 days, he was released, he said, and from there it took him more than a month to reach Mexico, passing through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.

Gurpreet said that he was waiting for about a month in Mexico until San Diego had an opportunity to cross the border in the US.

He said, “We did not scale a wall. It has a mountain, on which we climbed. And there is a razor wire, through which Donkar cut,” he said.

Gurpreet entered the US on 15 January, five days ago, President Trump took over – assuming that he had made it on time, before the boundaries became impervious and the rules were fed up.

Once in San Diego, he surrendered to the US border patrol, and then detained by immigration and customs enforcement (ICE).

During the Biden administration, illegal or unspecified migrants will appear in front of an immigration officer, who would conduct an initial interview to determine whether each person had a case for asylum. While most of the Indians went out of economic requirement, anything left Fear of harassment,

If he approved the interview, he was released, a decision pending on giving asylum to an immigration judge. The process often took years, but meanwhile they were allowed to live in the US.

Gurpreet thought what would happen to her. He planned to find work at a grocery store and then to go into trucking, he is familiar with a business.

Instead, after less than three weeks of entering the US, he found that the C -17 was taken to the C -17 aircraft and was going back where it started.

In his small house in Sultanpur Lodhi, a city in the northern state of Punjab, Gurpreet is now trying to find the work to repay the money given by her, and beat her family.

Additional reporting by aakriti thapar