Kusum Arora 
Jalandhar: Navdeep Singh was to return on a US military flight on February 15. His family from the Chak Ghubaya Taranwala village of Ferozepur district in Punjab arrived at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport well ahead of time.
This was the second deportation aircraft that reached India from the US. In it, undocumented Indians were shackled over the course of an over 60-hour journey. A total of 332 Indians have been deported in three US military flights.
But Navdeep was not on the plane. His family was worried.
“We have no idea about our son’s return, as there is no information about further US deportation flights yet. There is nobody whom we can approach for clarity,” said Navdeep’s father Kashmir Singh. Kashmir has heard from two other deported men – Saurav from Ferozepur district and Gursewak from Rajpura in Patiala – that Navdeep was not on the plane because of his ill health. He was suffering from fever, cough and dizziness and was taken to a hospital, they told Kashmir. There has been no official word yet.
Navdeep had entered the US on January 27, 2025. This was his second illegal or dunki attempt. He travelled from Malaysia to Guatemala to reach the US. In July 2024, he had attempted to enter the US from Mexico, but by November, he had returned to India after failing.
After promises by his agent, Navdeep made the January attempt but was arrested and taken to the Tijuana camp on the US-Mexico border and made to wait for deportation.
Navdeep’s father Kashmir, who works as a confectioner in the village, told The Wire that he has sold his one-acre agricultural land and his two buffaloes, and mortgaged his house to send his son to the US. One of his cousins is already there.
The agent told Kashmir that his son will reach the US legally via flights. The exercise will take Rs 42 lakh, he said. Later, the agent asked for Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.
“I had no money to pay further but the agent kept demanding more and I ended up selling everything. I also borrowed some money from my relatives,” Kashmir said.
Also read: The Tortuous Routes Some Indians Are Taking to Get to Foreign Shores
When Navdeep first left for the US in July 2024, Kashmir paid Rs 30 lakh to the agent. When he had to return home in November 2024, the agent sought Rs 15 lakh for Navdeep’s second trip, this time from Malaysia. He also asked for Rs 5 lakh to pay Navdeep’s guarantor in the US.
“When the agent sent my son for a second US dunki, Donald Trump (then the presidential candidate) was repeatedly saying that he will act strictly against illegal immigrants. I told the agent that I do not want to send my son to the US. However, he kept telling me that there was nothing to worry about and that he had also arranged a guarantor to bring my son out of jail in the US. At one point during his dunki, I had to pay around Rs 4,400 every second day for my son’s food as the donkers did not give him anything to eat. I ended up spending Rs 3 lakh more,” he said.
Kashmir said that it would have been better had his son completed his graduation instead of going to the US. “He had just taken admission in BA first year at Guru Nanak College, Ferozepur, when he came across this agent and decided to go to the US. The problem is that there are no jobs and good salaries here. Above all, drug menace was a huge problem in Punjab. We thought that sending him to the US would bring an end to our woes,” Kashmir said.
Navdeep’s paternal uncle Jagir Singh also said that before boarding the US military plane, all the deportees were medically examined. “That is when they took my nephew back for treatment. We do not know when he will come back. Navdeep’s family, particularly his mother, is not in a good condition. She has been crying endlessly for her son. We are waiting for some information about the next deportation flight,” he said.
Also read: Three Things About India that Shackled Indians Returning Home Tell Us
US deportee lodges FIR against farmer union leader for duping him of Rs 45 lakh
Meanwhile, Jaswinder Singh from Pandori Arian village of the Moga district who was deported from the US has lodged an FIR against a Punjab-based farmer union leader for duping him of Rs 45 lakh in the name of sending him to the US via a dunki route. Jaswinder entered the US on January 27, 2025 and reached Amritsar on February 15, 2025.
The farmer union leader, he alleged, promised him a US visa but instead sent him with a Schengen visa to Prague. Jaswinder returned home in the second flight which landed in Amritsar on the night of February 15, 2025.
The FIR has been lodged against BKU Totewal state president Sukhwinder Singh Gill alias Sukh Gill, his mother Pritam Kaur and relatives Talwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh under sections 143, 318 (4), 61 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 24 of The Emigration Act.
Sukhwinder Singh Gill is also a member of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmers’ union which led the farmers’ protest against the now-repealed farm laws in 2020 and 2021.
According to the FIR, Sukhwinder was running an immigration agency – Fateh Immigration – at Dharamkot in Moga district. Jaswinder stated that when he consulted Sukhwinder about his plans to move abroad, he advised Jaswinder go legally – on flights. The FIR also mentioned that Sukhwinder even promised a three-year work permit to Jaswinder in the US and demanded Rs 45 lakh for the same.
In November 2024, Gill took Jaswinder, who has studied till Class 10 to an office at a shopping mall in Chandigarh. Sukhwinder allegedly told him that it was the ‘US Embassy Office’ and sought Rs 14,000 in fees for some initial documentation.
As per the FIR, after some days, Sukhwinder told Jaswinder that his US visa had arrived and that his flight was on December 12, 2024. It was only when Jaswinder boarded his flight from Delhi and reached Prague that he got to know that he had a Schengen visa and not a US one.
At Prague, the youth was held captive at a hotel by Sukhwinder’s aides, who demanded more money from him and also made him speak to Sukhwinder through WhatsApp calls. Later, he was asked to transfer Rs 4 lakh to another person’s account, he alleged. Jaswinder also had to make two other transactions of Rs 2 lakh each.
From Prague, the complainant was sent to Spain and from Spain to El Salvador during which he again paid Rs 3.50 lakh. Finally, he was sent through the Panama jungle to enter the US. He was arrested by the US border police.
The Wire tried to contact Sukhwinder Singh Gill but his phone was switched off and as per reports, the farmer union leader was on the run.