4th batch of 12 unauthorised Indian immigrants deported by US lands in Delhi

These deportees flew back to India via Panama, media reports said. Of the 12, four went home to Punjab's Amritsar.

The first round of deportation took place on February 5, when a US military plane transported 104 Indians to Amritsar.

More than 300 Indians have been deported from the US already in three batches.

The deportation, and the way it is being carried out, became a political flashpoint with the Opposition asking why the Centre did not intervene to bring them back on its terms.

Amid criticism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said the Centre had been engaging with the US to ensure the deportees are not mistreated.

He said the US deportation of illegal immigrants is not a new development and has been going on for years.

In a sensitive situation, Panama has currently sheltered nearly 300 individuals from various countries, including India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China, who were deported from the United States under the orders of President Donald Trump, media reports said.

These unauthorised immigrants are being made to stay in a hotel, where they are receiving medical attention and food as part of a migration agreement between Panama and the US, media reports said.

President Trump has defended the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, saying his administration is "draining the swamp by sending home fraudsters, cheaters, globalists and deep state bureaucrats."

He has made mass deportation of undocumented migrants a key policy.

As of 2022, unauthorised immigrants represented 3.3 percent of the total US population, and 23 percent of the foreign-born population, according to Pew Research Centre.