It took Daler Singh six months and $45,000 to reach the United States last month without paperwork. Within three weeks of his arrival, he was sent back to his native India on a military plane, his hands and legs cuffed throughout the journey.
Singh, 37, was among 104 Indians deported by U.S. authorities on Wednesday in a much-publicised transfer that fulfils a key election pledge of President Donald Trump but is an embarrassment for India, a close partner, whose Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to visit Washington next week.
"I have lost my entire life earnings. My dreams are shattered," Singh said at his home in the village of Salempura in Punjab state, bordering Pakistan.
"Nobody should take the illegal route and buy promises made by agents. People should go through the visa route."
Singh said he had to mortgage family jewellery and land to raise about 4 million rupees ($45,700) to pay the agent. He said his journey had involved flying to Dubai in early August, where he stayed for several months before being made to trek for days in Mexico on the way to the United States.
U.S. authorities detained him on Jan. 15 and then moved him and others onto a C-17 Globemaster aircraft this week for the journey back home. In a social media post, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) chief Michael W. Banks posted a video showing some men being led into a military plane in handcuffs and legs in chains.
"USBP and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport," Banks said on X. "This mission underscores our commitment to enforcing immigration laws and ensuring swift removals. If you cross illegally, you will be removed."
The return of the Indians, aged from 4 to 46, and including 25 females, has given the country's opposition parties a chance to hit back at the government of Modi, who has spoken about boosting ties with the United States. The deportees were from five Indian states, including Modi's home state of Gujarat, and the federal territory of Chandigarh.
HANDCUFFED
"Our hands and legs were cuffed throughout," said Singh, looking tired after the long journey as reporters fired questions at him, his wife and two children milling around in the courtyard of their one-storey house by a wheat field.
"They did not unlock our cuffs even when we ate."
India's foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, told parliament that it was standard practice for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities to restrain deportees but that it was not done with the women and children on the plane to India.
"We are, of course, engaging with the U.S. government to ensure that returning deportees are not mistreated in any manner during the flight," he said.
"At the same time, the House will appreciate that our focus should be on the crackdown, strong crackdown on the illegal migration industry, while taking steps to ease visas for the legitimate traveller."
He said Indian law enforcement agencies would act against agents who organise such immigration based on information from the returnees. Jaishankar said that in the past 16 years, more than 15,000 Indians had been deported to India from the U.S.
One of them was Akashdeep Singh, 23, who reached the U.S. only last month having failed to secure a job in India. His farming family sold two tractors and some land and took loans to raise more than 6 million rupees for his illegal trip.
"Why would we send our children outside? There are no jobs here," Singh's father Swaran Singh said. "We demand jobs for our children, so we never have to send them away."
($1 = 87.5260 Indian rupees)
