Military Plane Carries Indian Migrants Back From US In Furthest Deportation Flight Yet

Indian media is reporting an unprecedented first – that US military flights are being used to deport illegal migrants from India.

Regional reports are citing a US official who say this is the furthest such flight involving military transport flights for migrants, also amid reports that illegals are also being flown to the US Army’s base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Here’s what the English-language Times of India says in an unconfirmed report:

In the first such operation of its kind involving India since the return of Donald Trump to the White Hosue, the US dispatched a C17 miliary aircraft carrying an unspecified number of illegal Indian migrants to India. Anonymous US officials were quoted as saying dozens had been deported, and unconfirmed reports put the number of number of deportees at north of 200, but there is no confirmation about the same by either county.

The report continues, “The people who are returning, all verified Indian nationals, are among the thousands of Indians identified for deportation under the Biden administration.”

This after President Trump previewed last month, “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,” according to a press briefing issued by Trump last month.

According to a Tuesday Bloomberg report:

Like several other nations, India is working behind the scenes to appease the Trump administration and avoid the brunt of its trade threats. In the last few weeks, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has delivered a series of concessions to the White House on issues core to Trump’s agenda. Modi is expected to meet Trump in Washington next week.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs did not offer an immediate comment. Bloomberg earlier reported that the South Asian nation is willing to take back 18,000 undocumented Indian migrants from the US.

But we should note that a couple hundred illegal undocumented Indian migrants at this point is but a very small political concession by Modi. Trump and the Indian leader have had very warm relations in the past, and during Trump’s first administration.

Currently, all eyes are focused on flights to central America, but it could demonstrate how far the new president is willing to go, in terms of costly cross-continental flights all the way to southern Asia.

Bloomberg has noted that India’s own numbers are likely an underestimate. “While the total number of undocumented Indian migrants in the US isn’t certain, a report published last year by the Department of Homeland Security pegged the number at around 220,000 as of 2022,” the publication wrote.

First U.S. military flight deports Indian migrants under #DonaldTrump‘s immigration agenda | Watch pic.twitter.com/OvNZnnPE0a

— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) February 4, 2025

“An aircraft with around 200 people residing illegally in the US will land on Wednesday in Amritsar in India’s northern state of Punjab, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public,” Bloomberg reported further.