Amritsar, Feb 15: A second batch of 119 illegal immigrants from the US, comprising 67 Punjabis, will land at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport on Saturday night in a special plane, officials said.

Another flight of the deportees from the US is expected to reach here on February 16. Earlier, a US military plane with 104 deportees landed in Amritsar on February 5.

Officials said besides 67 immigrants from Punjab, Saturday’s flight will have 33 people from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

This will be the second batch of Indians deported by the Trump government as part of a crackdown. The plane is expected to land at the airport around 10 pm on Saturday.

The deportation of these individuals is part of a wider crackdown by US immigration authorities on those who either entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas.

Sources have revealed that deportations will continue on a bi-weekly basis, with similar flights bringing back Indian nationals in the coming weeks, until all undocumented immigrants are returned to their home countries.

The government of India, through diplomatic channels, continues to work on repatriating its nationals who are affected by such deportations.

While the process has caused distress for many families, the authorities emphasise that the deportations are part of the ongoing effort to address illegal immigration, and those who wish to return home will be facilitated.

With the ongoing crackdown, both the US and India are taking steps to address immigration challenges while ensuring their respective laws are upheld.

This deportation comes just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump and stressed the need to fight against the “ecosystem” that lures people from ordinary families with big dreams and promises and brings them to other countries as illegal immigrants.

“We are of the opinion that anybody who enters and lives in another country illegally, they have absolutely no legal right or authority to live in that country,” PM Modi said at a joint press conference with Trump in the White House on Thursday.

Opposing the move to land the next plane carrying deported Indians at the Amritsar airport, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday described it as a “conspiracy of the Union government to defame Punjab and Punjabis”.

Interacting with the media here, the Chief Minister said that despite Punjab being the food bowl and sword arm of India, the move to land the plane carrying deported Indians from the US “is just another attempt of the Government of India to tarnish the image of Punjab globally”.

Mann questioned the move of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to choose Amritsar for landing this plane whereas there are hundreds of other airports in the country.

The Chief Minister said he has already raised this issue with the MEA and the Ministry of Home Affairs but hasn’t received any positive response from them.

He said that one plane had landed a few days back and now two more planes are being landed without any proper justification.

The Chief Minister said, “It is the moral responsibility of the MEA to explain why Punjab, especially Amritsar, has been chosen for this landing”.

He said despite the fact that a hostile neighbour is 40 kms away from Amritsar, an Army plane of the US is being landed here.

(IANS)

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