Govt verifying nationality of 295 in US custody: MEA in Rajya Sabha
External affairs minister S Jaishankar said that between January 2025 and March 13, a total of 388 Indians have been deported to India from the US
The Indian government is verifying the nationality of 295 people who are in the custody of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with final orders of removal, external affairs minister (EAM) S Jaishankar informed the Rajya Sabha in a written response on March 13. People who have been verified to be Indian citizens have only been accepted “to be deported to India”, the government said in another response.
Jaishankar said that between January 2025 and March 13, a total of 388 Indians have been deported to India from the US.
A total of 15,952 Indians have been deported by the US since 2009, minister of state for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh informed the upper house on March 13 in another response. At 2,042, the highest number of Indians were deported in 2019.
The EAM said that the Indian government does not have any “firm information” from the US government about the total number of illegal immigrants in the US with Indian passports.
Jaishankar said that the MEA “strongly registered its concerns” with the US authorities about how the deportees, particularly women, were shackled in the “deportation flight” that arrived on February 5. In the deportation flights that landed in India on February 15 and 16, no women and children were restrained, the American side told India, which Indian agencies confirmed after interviewing the deportees on their arrival, Jaishankar said.
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In response, the EAM cited a November 2012 standard operating procedure followed by ICE, which allows the authorities to use restraints on deportees. “While women and minors are generally not shackled, the flight officer in charge of a deportation flight has the final say on the matter,” the EAM’s response read.
Of the 388 Indians deported by the US in 2025, 333 were directly deported from US to India on three flights (February 5, 15 and 16) while 55, who were deported between February 20 and March 2, were deported by the US via Panama on commercial flights. In another response, minister of state for external affairs Pabitra Margherita said that these 55 were not restrained.
Of the 333 Indians that were deported directly to India, 126 were from Punjab, 110 from Haryana and 74 from Gujarat, Singh said in another response. Of the 55 Indian deported via Panama, 27 were from Punjab, 22 from Haryana and three from Gujarat.
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Singh told Parliament that the US government told MEA that detainees on the three direct flights were not instructed to remove any religious head coverings and that aside from requesting vegetarian meals, the detainees had not asked for any religious accommodations.
Margherita also said that Indian Missions and Posts do not have “any reliable data” about the number of Indians that illegally stay or work in foreign countries. He said that as many countries do not give information on illegal immigrants in their countries except when “they are under orders of deportation and travel document/nationality verification is required”. He said that since all countries do not share details of all Indian deportees, “the exact number of Indian deported from foreign countries is not available”.
