New Delhi: The US flights carrying deported migrants back to their home countries are also carrying a message to the world: America no longer wants to be known as a nation of immigrants—and certainly not of illegal immigrants.
The deportation of 104 illegal Indian immigrants from the US, ferried in a military aircraft while handcuffed and shackled, sparked an uproar in Parliament. It was a bitter pill to swallow from a country and administration seen as a friend of India’s—perhaps even a harsh reality check, as India found itself grouped with smaller nations like Colombia, Guatemala, and El Salvador on the receiving end of mass deportations.
The incident forced External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to address Parliament following public outrage over deported immigrants walking off the military aircraft after forty hours of restraint. “It is the obligation of all countries to take back their nationals if they are found to be living illegally abroad,” he said. The images of Indian deportees boarding a plane in chains served as a stark reminder that globalisation is rapidly shrinking. That is why US deportations are ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
The theatre of Trump
The deportation flights are a mix of spectacle and policy. President Donald Trump wanted to make a statement, and he has succeeded—mass deportations are key to his anti-immigration agenda, a top foreign policy priority. And he has wasted no time in getting them underway.
Trump is reportedly determined to carry out “the largest deportation effort in American history,” aiming to expel 15 to 20 million people as soon as possible—and he has enlisted the military to achieve it.
“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 said at his golf club in Doral on 27 January, warning that countries refusing to accept deportees would face a “high economic price.”
- Mass Deportations as Political Theater: Trump is using large-scale deportations, including military flights, to reinforce his hardline anti-immigration stance and reshape America’s borders.
- India Caught in the Crackdown: The deportation of 104 Indian immigrants in chains sparked outrage in Parliament, prompting External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to defend India’s response.
- Diplomacy & Economic Coercion: Trump is pressuring countries like El Salvador and Guatemala to accept deportees, using diplomatic deals and economic threats to enforce compliance.
- A Redefined Border Policy: The Trump administration sees its border control extending beyond the US-Mexico line, shaping immigration policies deep into South America and beyond.
Deporting illegal migrants on C-17 military cargo planes costs around $28,500 per hour of flight time, according to Reuters—and there have been over ten such military deportation flights since 24 January.
India, Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, and Peru have received deported migrants on military flights, while Colombia arranged its own aircraft for returning migrants. The practice itself isn’t unprecedented—former US President Joe Biden deported 271,000 immigrants in 2024 and 1.5 million over his four-year term, according to the Migration Policy Institute. This is roughly the same as during Trump’s previous term and significantly lower than the 2.9 million deported under Barack Obama’s first term.
Yet, Trump’s theatrics are forcing countries—including India—to confront the reality of illegal immigration more directly.
Also read: Stop feeling bad for Indian illegal immigrants Trump throws out. They chose to leave India
India’s response
Jaishankar laid out the total number of deported migrants India has received since 2009: 15,721 over 16 years. He emphasised that this particular flight was no different from previous deportations—what was unexpected was the speed of this repatriation.
“We are, of course, engaging with the US government to ensure [that] returning deportees were not mistreated. At the same time, our focus should be on a strong crackdown on the illegal migration industry while taking steps to ease visas for legitimate travel,” he said in Parliament.
Jaishankar also stated that authorities have been instructed to investigate each returnee—to determine how they reached the US, who facilitated their journey, and what measures can be taken to prevent such migration in the future.
“We’ve been sympathetic and solicitous to these people,” Jaishankar added. “They’ve come through a difficult experience, misled by agents.”
Redrawing borders
Mass deportations are a defining pillar of Trump’s agenda, a calculated move to mould America in line with his promises to voters.
The issue, however, is that deportations require bilateral agreements—one country expels people, but another must accept them. And Trump is strong-arming countries to toe the line.
This is where diplomacy, alongside economic coercion, comes into play. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio just wrapped up his first foreign tour, visiting five Central American nations and securing deportation agreements with El Salvador and Guatemala, ensuring they take in deported migrants not only from the US but from other countries as well. The US has also started sending undocumented immigrants to a military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has even offered his country’s prison space to detain deportees and foreign prisoners if needed. Meanwhile, Guatemala has expanded its capacity to accept deportees from multiple countries before repatriating them at US expense.
After watching Colombian migrants loaded onto a military deportation flight in Panama, Rubio said, “You could say our border doesn’t begin in Texas or Mexico—it begins much farther down.”
This statement encapsulates how the Trump administration views its borders—highly porous that have been exploited endlessly but also stretching deep into South America. It’s clear that the Trump administration is not just enforcing existing borders—it is redrawing them with permanent markers.
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(Edited by Prashant)