New Delhi: A US military plane carrying 104 deported Indian migrants arrived in India on Wednesday, the first such flight which is part of a crackdown ordered by the new President-elect of the US Donald Trump. The Indians who were deported in the flight had illegally entered the United States over the years, coming from different states all over India.

Since the re-election of Donald Trump, he has been clear in his intent to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants from the United States of America. One of his key election campaign agendas and a benchmark of his policy since he first entered US politics, Trump’s stance on immigration has always been strong. In line with this, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this week said that the deportation flights were an effective way to stem the flow of illegal migration, something he referred to as being destructive and destabilizing.

The US State Department said that the ongoing spate of mass deportations from the US are a way of sending a message of deterrence to other people considering migrating illegally. “Illegal immigration is often linked to other unlawful activities. It is neither desirable nor beneficial for our reputation. If any of our citizens are found to be in the US illegally, and we verify their citizenship, we are open to their lawful return to India,” Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Jaishankar had earlier said on the issue.

Now after the first batch of illegal migrants have returned to the country, the question of their safety has also been raised. External Affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that returning deportees from the US were not mistreated, further mentioning that there was no departure from the past procedure for the flight which landed on Wednesday.

India with time has seen a significant rise in illegal migrations to the US. A Pew Research Center report said that as of 2022, India ranked third, after Mexico and El Salvador, on the list of countries with the largest number of unauthorized immigrants (725,000) living in the US.

A significant rise in the number of........

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