The United States, under President Donald Trump's administration, has begun its crackdown against illegal immigrants. On Wednesday, February 5, news outlets reported that an American aircraft carrying over 100 Indian migrants landed in Punjab's Amritsar. On social media, these reports of Indians being deported were shared with images and clips showing people chained and in handcuffs.
A report by Turkish public broadcaster TRT World showed one such image of "handcuffed" Indian immigrants being escorted to US military aircraft. (Archive) Delhi-based media outlet The Daily Guardian also used the same image in its report on Indians' deportation from the US. (Archive)
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Meanwhile, Congress leader Pawan Khera also issued a statement that photos showed Indian immigrants handcuffed. "Looking at the pictures of Indians getting handcuffed and humiliated while being deported from the US saddens me as an Indian..." he wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Khera's initial post had four images, apparently of Indian migrants, showing their wrists and feet in shackles. Khera later edited the post and removed the images. Below are screenshots. (Archives 1, 2)
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Fact Check
Alt News found that the image showing handcuffed immigrants in TRT World's report and the image on the top right in Khera's post actually shows Guatemalans, not Indians. These images were shared by news agency Associated Press in a report dated February 1.
According to the AP report, a US Air Force jet deported 80 migrants with their writsts and ankles cuffed to Guatemala on Thursday, January 30. The caption of the widely shared image says migrants with face masks and shackles on their hands and feet sit on a military aircraft at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas awaiting deportation.
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A reverse image search of the second of the four photos in Khera's post -- showing masked migrants with their hands cuffed behind their back walking in a line led -- us to a video shared on X on January 30. The image is a key frame in this video which, according to the caption, shows migrants being deported to Mexico. A location stamp in the video mentions Hidalgo, Texas.
Taking cue from this, we ran a keyword search and found a compilation of photos by Reuters showing scenes from the frontlines of the immigration crackdown from January 29. One of the pictures in the compilation showed migrants being escorted across the Hidalgo international border bridge in McAllen, Texas. The same migrants can be seen in the Reuters compilation, the video on X uploaded on January and in Khera's now-edited post. Below is a comparison.
We were also able to locate the third image shared by Khera in the same Reuters picture compilation. The January 23 photo shows detained migrants waiting to take off on a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III removal flight at the Tucson International Airport in Tucson, Arizona. Again, this image was taken two weeks before Indians were deported.
Alt News was also able to verify the last image used in Khera's post. This is one of the key frames of a video shared by the US Homeland Security on X on January 28. "In the first week of the Trump Administration, we have fulfilled President Trump's promise to the American people to arrest and deport violent criminals illegally in the country," the post said.
Also, while some news reports claim that nearly 200 Indians were deported, Punjab minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who looks into affairs of overseas Indians, put the number at 104.
Mirror Now airs clips of deportation
Indian news outlet Mirror Now aired clips claiming it showed Indians being deported. Note that these videos featured scenes from the airport and US officials escorting a line of immigrants but immigrants were not seen handcuffed here. (Archive)
Fact Check
The clips in Mirror Now's broadcast show migrants deported from the United States arriving in Guatemala; these are not related to Indians' deportation. The clips were published by AP in a report on January 25.
Below are comparisons of keyframes from Mirror Now's reportage and Associated Press's video.
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One can see the words 'Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración' on a hoarding. This translates to Guatemalan Institute of Migration. The words 'Guatemala, C.A.', can also be seen.
Congress spokesperson condemns 'humiliation' faced by Indian migrants
Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed also shared an image showing handcuffed immigrants being lined up and escorted into an aircraft. "Why can't we protest against the US for this humiliation and for treating Indians as criminals?" she wrote on X. (Archive)
Another X account, @IndianTrendX, also shared a similar image claiming Indians were being deported from the US under Trump's administration. "In the first week of the Trump Administration, we have fulfilled President Trump's promise to the American people to arrest and deport violent criminals illegally in the country," the post, dated January 28, said. (Archive)
Fact Check
Alt News found that the images shared by the INC spokesperson and in the X post are not of Indians. Both images were originally shared on X by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on January 25 -- at least 11 days before the deportation to Amritsar.
The images were also used in the video shared by the US Homeland Security on X. The post, dated January 28, claimed that in just a week, US law enforcement officials had "removed and returned 7,300 illegal aliens".
Another image claiming to showcase deportation of Indian migrants viral
A similar image was used by Punjab-based news outlet The Tribune in their report on Indians' deportation. (Archive)
Fact Check
A reverse image search of the photo used in The Tribune piece led us to a Reuters report on the cost of the these deportations using military aircraft where the same image has been used. The picture, a handout by the US Department of Defense, was taken on January 23 at Fort Bliss, Texas and shows US Customs and Border Protection security agents guiding detained migrants to board a the US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.
The image is from two weeks before Indian migrants were deported.
Alt News's fact-check report has verified several unrelated images and clips being circulated with claims that these are Indians but actually show migrants of other nationalities being deported. However, this does not imply that Indian deportees did not face the same conditions. On Thursday, February 6, The Indian Express reported that Indians illegally living there were indeed sent back to India handcuffed and chained. The report, citing one of the deportees, said that Indians were shackled for 40 hours on the aircraft, "not allowed to move an inch," were allowed to "drag" themselves to the washroom after repeated requests. The official Instagram handle of the US Border Patrol also released visuals of the deportation wherein the shackled Indian immigrants can be seen entering the aircraft. "USBP and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport", reads the caption of the video.
Also, it is important to mention here that this is not the first time the US has deported Indian migrants but never before have military aircraft been deployed for doing so.
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