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Remember when photographs of hundreds of Indians—shackled and flown in US military aircraft—being deported from the US went viral last month. While the condition that they were flown in became a huge bone of contention and was even discussed during PM Modi’s visit to Washington DC, it is not a focus in this story.
The larger issue is the prevalence of an extensive network of fraudulent travel agents who facilitate illegal immigration to the US, and other countries in Europe and Central Asia, for exorbitant sums of money.
Through a sophisticated network operating in India and abroad, they not only seem to have identified international borders with relatively lenient security checks but also loopholes in immigration policies—which they use to their advantage.
In turn, they target people desperately trying to emigrate but not having the means to do so, in terms of either education, professional qualification, understanding the process to move abroad or in some cases, even the money needed.
This story exposes how these fraud agents operate, dupe aspiring migrants, and still manage to escape facing prosecution.
A total of 388 Indians have been deported by the US so far in 2025, as per a Parliament response given by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on 13 March 2025. Of them, 153 or nearly 40 percent belong to Punjab while 132 (or 34 percent) belong to Haryana.
Punjab Police told The Quint that most deportees from Punjab entered the US through Central America and tried to enter the US through the Tijuana border point in Mexico. “They crossed into the USA illegally with the help of traffickers and smugglers,” the DGP Office stated. The Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by headed by ADGP NRI Affairs Praveen Sinha, has registered at least 19 First Information Reports (FIRs) and arrested at least three such fraudulent agents.
The Quint has accessed eight FIRs from Punjab to learn how syndicates of traffickers target uninitiated individuals, dupe them of lakhs of rupees, and lead them through dangerous routes—traversing dozens of countries and involving areas controlled by drug cartel and smugglers—to enable their illegal entry into the US.
The Quint also spoke to Parminder Jit, Deputy Director at Sun Foundation, an NGO led by Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney, that helps rehabilitate deportees and survivors of cross-border trafficking in Punjab. Parminder shared her experience after speaking to dozens of deportees.
Here’s what we discovered:
Agents Target Naive Individuals, Desperate to Migrate
The complainants, who filed the eight FIRs accessed by The Quint, are seven men and one woman. Most of them belong to rural Punjab and were educated only till Class 10 or Class 12. While the oldest complainant Gurvinder Singh is 45 years old, the youngest Ajaideep Singh is only 21 years old. They all claimed to be approached either by friends, or relatives or acquaintances with offers to send them abroad.
“These days in Punjab, most people who come to the gurdwaras to pray that their visa gets approved. When people go and sit there, they talk to each other daily, and information spreads that so-and-so person is looking to go abroad," Parminder Jit told The Quint.
She added that it is here that agents and several of their sub-agents target people who long to emigrate.
“These sub-agents listen to people's problems and convince them that - ‘We have met you at a religious place, we have met you at God's place, and we will not cheat you.’ They present themselves as a divine solution to their problems and people believe them.”Parminder Jit, Deputy Director, Sun Foundation
She added that the agents find out the address of aspiring migrants, reach their homes and establish a rapport with the family so that people easily trust them.
'Agents Forge Documents to Take Loans'
Next, these sub-agents try to find out about the amount of money or assets owned by the families of those who wish to emigrate. They ask questions such as -- “Is the house you’re living in yours?”
“If so, the sub agents take the property documents and find a way to elicit more money out of the families through loans, pawning off the house as collateral. They have good connections with bank employees to get loans. Often, they even forge documents,” Parminder claimed.
For instance, one of the complainants Daler Singh was approached by an agent Satnam Singh, who allegedly offered to send him to the US for Rs 60 lakh. Daler claimed he had to sell off all his land to be able to afford the money.
“Recently I had a case where a woman has arranged Rs 18 lakh to send her daughter to the US, while she works as a domestic help in five houses and gets paid Rs 1,000 per month from each house. And within a week of her showing interest, the agent told her that her daughter had received an offer letter from a US-based company,” Parminder claimed.
And this was happening after the first batch of 104 Indians was deported by the US. To this, Parminder added that aspiring migrants usually belong to poor households, are uninitiated and agree to whatever the agents tell them.
‘Travelled a Dozen Nations on Foot, via Boats and Buses’
An interesting angle that emerged from the FIRs was the long and arduous journey the complainants endured to enter the US, despite paying nearly 45 to 60 times the actual cost of a direct flight.
At least two of them have described traversing a dozen countries starting from Mumbai in India—to Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, before they reach Mexico.
The complainants have described walking through dense jungles, swamps, climbing cliffs, hiding in vegetable carts and containers to be able to complete their journey and reach the US-Mexico border.
In this, they seem to have traversed the Darien Gap, a notorious roadless jungle between Columbia and Panama, which is controlled by drug cartels and human traffickers. The perilous stretch is the only land route connecting North and South Americas and is taken by thousands of migrants trying to enter the US illegally.
Although the agents promised the complainants that they could enter the US within 15 days to a month, 40-year-old Gurpreet Singh from Kapurthala, Punjab claimed to have completed this journey over seven long months.
And he was arrested by the Border Patrol an hour after crossing over to the US along the Tijuana Border.
The Punjab Police told The Quint, “Deportee's may start from different countries, but they normally enter the US through Central America. Most of them tried to enter through the Tijuana border. They crossed into the USA illegally with the help of traffickers and smugglers.”
Why Deportees Don't Sue Fraudulent Agents?
Punjab Police told The Quint on 26 February that it has registered at least 19 FIRs based on deportees’ complaints and arrested three fraudulent travel agents. Haryana Police has reportedly registered at least 35 while in Gujarat, there have been no reports of FIRs yet.
To this, we asked Parminder Jit the reasons behind deportees’ reluctance in taking legal action against the agents who duped them. She explained it in five bullet points:
‘Deportees are traumatised’
“I think they need some time to come out of this tragedy - so much of their money wasted, plus when they took the 'dunki' (illegal) route to enter the US, they faced a lot of difficulties on the way; they even saw dead bodies. At this time, a person may think that - this could have been me, or I might not even reach my destination. These things are most likely are etched in their minds and have traumatised them.”
‘They Have Already Lost a Lot of Money’
"The deportees have suffered heavy financial losses. They think that if they file a police case, they will have to spend more money on lawyers, etc. even as they are already burdened with tremendous debt.”
‘They Don’t Want More Hassle’
"Third, they feel it will be an additional hassle, that they will be called to the police station repeatedly."
‘They Are Threatened by the Fraudulent Agents’
"When women domestic workers were deported from Oman, we had encouraged them to register police cases. But they started getting threats. They were being threatened by the agents to withdraw the case or else they would face dire consequences. So, people are afraid of that.”
‘They Chose to Immigrate Illegally’
“Most people were aware of the fact that they were immigrating illegally. They were willing to go and I'll also tell you that sometimes the agents have them sign a document saying that they are doing all these things of their own free will. So, the deportees are afraid that if they take legal action, it may happen that they will get caught up in this mess themselves.”
Are Deportees Culpable of Crime?
In his response in the Rajya Sabha on 13 March, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reiterated “India’s consistent stance against illegal immigration while seeking humane treatment of deportees.”
The issue was discussed during PM Modi’s visit to the US on 12-13 February 2025. “Both sides acknowledged the need to cooperate closely in aggressively addressing illegal immigration and human trafficking by taking strong action against bad actors, criminal facilitators, and illegal immigration networks,” Jaishankar stated.
He said that the Ministry has strongly registered its concerns with the US authorities on the treatment meted out to deportees on the flight that landed on 5 February, particularly with respect to use of shackles, especially on women.
“The US side has mentioned that restraints are applied to ensure the safety and security of the mission and are used on both chartered aircraft as well as military aircraft. 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 US side has confirmed that no women or children were restrained on the deportation flights that landed in India on 15 and 16 February. This has been confirmed and recorded by our agencies after interviewing the deportees on their arrival in India.”
The Parliament response also stated that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has shared with us information pertaining to 295 individuals who are detained in their custody with final orders of removal from USA. The Ministry is currently verifying details for these 295 individuals.