When their American Dreamturned into a nightmare...
07 Feb 2025 11:22:30
Swaran Singh, father of Akashdeep Singh, one of the Indian immigrants deported from US, with relatives at his residence in the border village of Rajatal, in Amritsar district.
KURUKSHETRA :
Families of US deportees recount horror
WITH dreams of a bright future
and a better life for their families back home, youths from
Haryana’s Kurukshetra district
broke the bank to pay agents to
help them settle in the US.
They traversed treacherous
routes, crossing several rivers
and forests while facing extortion and getting roughed up, to
reachtheUS.ButtheirAmerican
Dream turned into a nightmare
as they were handcuffed by US
authorities and deported.
Recounting the horror faced
by 27-year-oldRobinHanda,his
father Manjit Singh said his son
travelled across Guyana, Brazil,
Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and
Guatemala, crossed a sea and
passed through jungles, staying
hungry for days, to reach the
Mexico-US border.
Handa, who studied till class
12, left his native Ismailabad village in Kurukshetra district on
July 18 last year and by the time
hereachedtheUSborder,hehad
paidRs45lakhtodifferentagents
whilehismobilephonewas also
snatched, his father claimed.
He was handed over to the
“immigration mafia” in Mexico
and they tortured him for money. Here he gave themRs20lakh,
Singhsaid.Thedistraughtfather
oftwosaidthathis elder sonhad
gone to Australia for studies and
the younger one was insistent
on going to America.
With the dreams of an
improved financial condition in
ruins,Singhnowblamesthetravelagentfordefraudingthemwith
the false promise of getting
Handa settled in the US.
Robin Handa was among the
first batch of 104 Indians who
were deported by the US. A C-17
Globemaster aircraft of the US
military carrying these illegal
immigrants from various states
landed at Amritsar airport on
Wednesday, as part ofacrackdownthe DonaldTrumpadministration resolved to carry out
whenitwas sworn in lastmonth.
Oftheseillegalimmigrants, 33
each were from Haryana and
Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three
eachfromMaharashtraandUttar
Pradesh, and two fromChandigarh.
Superintendent of Police,
Kurukshetra, Varun Singla saidout of the 33 deportees fromHaryana, fourteen are fromKurukshetra district.
Khushpreet Singh (18), a resident of Chammukalan villagein the district, spent Rs 40 lakhto reach the US. His fatherJaswant Singh had arranged themoney by mortgaging his farmland. “Around 15 days ago, wereceived a call from Khushpreet
that he had reached the US border and would cross it soon,” hesaid. “After that, we lost communication with him.”
Thefamilycametoknowabouthis deportation only when hereached Amritsar