About 1,100 Indian citizens living illegally in the United States will be repatriated to India via chartered and commercial flights in the fiscal year 2023-24 ending September 30, a senior US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said on Tuesday. In a virtual briefing, Royce Murray, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, responding to questions about the charter flight that deported a group of Indian nationals on October 22, said the deportation flights included “none” Minors,” all of these men and women are adults.
The senior official said the charter flight landed in Punjab on October 22. However, he did not reveal where the plane came from or where the deportees came from. When asked about the number of people to be deported on October 22, he only said that about 100 people would be evacuated mainly by chartered flights.
The incident occurred days after U.S. homeland officials announced the deportation of a group of Indian citizens living illegally in the country. Responding to a question about the deportation of Indian citizens living illegally in the United States, Murray said that the United States has deported about 1,100 Indian citizens in the 2023-24 fiscal year ended September 30. The U.S. fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30.
“More than 145 countries including India…”
In fiscal year 2024, the Department of Homeland Security deported or deported more than 160,000 people and conducted more than 495 international repatriation flights to more than 145 countries, including India, a Department of Homeland Security statement said. The statement said the Department of Homeland Security enforces U.S. immigration laws and imposes severe penalties on illegal immigrants and encourages the use of legal channels.
Since the Presidential Proclamation on Border Security and the accompanying interim final rule took effect in June 2024, encounters between ports of entry on the U.S. southwest border have decreased by 55%.
Regarding the deportation on October 22, Royce Murray, Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said that the deportation went smoothly and received cooperation from the Indian government. On October 26, sources in New Delhi said that this was the result of cooperation between India and the United States on immigration and mobility. He said both sides were committed to “preventing illegal immigration” as part of the collaboration.
Also read: That river that was discovered in America and then started finding gold in rivers around the world?
Regarding the reasons behind such deportations, Department of Homeland Security officials said the first reason is that they want to enter the United States illegally, or they have no basis to legally stay in the United States, or they entered the country legally with a visa but stayed longer than the allowed time. Specify deadlines. Even people with valid residence permits can commit crimes, he said, but generally those deported are those who tried to cross the border illegally.
The Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for Border and Immigration Policy said: “We are continuing to strengthen our working relationship with India on a range of issues, and we look forward to further strengthening this relationship.” The senior U.S. official also said that on October 22 The deportations carried out on 24 March were not related to any other law enforcement activity.
