‘Nobody will illegally go to us.’

Gurpree Singh was handcuffed, the legs were entangled and the chain was tied around the waist. He led Texas’s runway to the C-17 military carrier aircraft waiting by the US border patrol.

It was February 3, and after several months of travel, he realized that his dream of life in the United States was over. He was expelled to India. “I felt like the land slipped under my feet,” he said.

Gurpreet, 39, has been trying to return to the United States by illegally entering the United States through the southern border, saving life as one of the thousands of Indians in recent years.

According to the most recent numbers of PEW Research in 2022, about 725,000 Indian immigrants in the United States were the third largest groups of Mexican and El Salvador.

Now Gurpree has become one of the first Indians that has not been documented since President Donald Trump has been inaugurated, and has promised to prioritize mass deportation.

Gurpree Trump’s administrative order is to drive out people without giving an asylum hearing He said he was removed without considering his case.

During the presidency of President Biden, about 3,700 Indians were sent back to the charter and commercial flight, but the recent images of the prisoners of the Trump administration’s chain were angry in India.

Us Border Patrol has released an image in an online video with a bombing choral sound track and a warning. “Illegal crossing is removed.”

“We were sitting in handcuffs and shackles for more than 40 hours. Even women were tied in the same way. Only children are free.” Gurpree said to the BBC in India. “We couldn’t be cluttered. If we wanted to use the toilet, we were escorted by the US military, and only one of our handcuffs.”

The opposition party protested in the parliament that he had received “inhuman and fallen treatment” from Indian depilies. “There are many talks about how Modi and Trump are good friends. Then why did Modi allow this?” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a major opposition leader, said.

Gurpreet said: “The Indian government would have to say something on behalf of us. They had to tell us to exile in the previous way without handcuffs and chains.”

The Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government raised this concern with the United States, and in the subsequent flight, female deport was handcuffed.

But on the ground, threatening images and President Trump’s investigation seem to have the desired effect.

“While Trump takes power, no one will go to the United States through this illegal ‘donkey’ line,” Gurpree said.

In the long run, this may depend on whether there is a continuous deportation, but now it has been afraid of the attack of the Indian police as the attackers of many Indians called “agents” hide.

Gurpreet said that Indian authorities demanded the number of agents used when they returned home, but smugglers could no longer reach.

Gurpree said, “I do not blame them. We were thirsty and went to the well. They did not come to us, ”Gurpree said.

While the official headline level is included The unemployment rate is only 3.2%It hides more unstable pictures for many Indians. Only 22%of workers receive regular salary, most of them are self -employed and almost one -fifth of them are “unpaid helper”, including women working in their family business.

“We are going to leave India because we have been forced. If we had a job that paid 30,000 rupees (£ 270/$ 340) a month, the family would not have thought of passing.

“You can say what you want for the economy with paper, but you need to see reality on the ground. There is no opportunity for us to work or run a business.”

Gupreet’s truck company was one of the cash -dependent small businesses when the Indian government withdrew 86%of the currency with a four -hour notice. He said he did not receive money from customers and had no money to continue his business. Another small business he founded failed to manage another small business that manages the logistics of other companies, he said, he said.

He tried to get a visa to go to Canada and England, but his application was rejected.

He then took all the savings and sold the conspiracy of the land he owned, and borrowed money from his relatives to collect 4 million rupees (45,000/£ 36,000) to pay the smugglers to organize their travels.

On August 28, 2024, he flew from India to Gaiana in South America and started a tough journey to the United States.

Gurpreet pointed out all the stops made on the telephone map. In Giana, he traveled to Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, mostly buses, cars, partially boats, and on a plane, to others in one person and being detained several times by the authorities.

In Colombia, smugglers were able to take him to Mexico, so he could avoid crossing the terrible leg yan gap. But Colombian immigration did not allow him to fly, so he had to try a dangerous trek through the jungle.

It is a densely dense rainforest between Colombia and Panama, which can only cross by walking, and can be at risk of accidents, diseases and criminal tissues. Last year, 50 people died of intersection.

Gurpree said, “I was not scared. I thought it would be okay because I was a sportsman. But it was the hardest section. “We walked for five days through the jungle and river. As we crossed the river in many ways, the water climbed my heart.”

As Gurpreet and other immigrants mentioned them, each group was accompanied by smugglers or “Donker”. The words originated from the term “donkey path” used for illegal migration trips are words.

At night they threw tents in the jungle, tried to eat some foods and relax.

“We were raining all the day we were there. We were soaked in bones.” They were informed of three mountains for the first two days. After that, he said that smugglers should follow the path marked in the blue plastic bag tied to the trees.

“My feet started to feel like lead. My toenails were divided, my palms were peeled off and thorns were thorns. But we were lucky that we could not meet the robbers.”

When they arrived in Panama, Gurpreet said that about 150 others and others were detained by border officials in a center -like center. Twenty days later, they were released, where it took more than a month to arrive in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala Eulgina.

Gurpree said in Mexico that he waited for a chance to cross the border to the United States near San Diego for almost a month.

“We did not expand the wall. There is a mountain we go up, and there is a razor wire that Docker is shaved,” he said.

Gurpreet entered the United States on January 15, five days before Trump took office on January 15. I believed that I made it on time before the border could not be stopped and the rules became harder.

Once in San Diego, he surrendered to the US border patrol and was detained by immigration and tariff execution (ICE).

During the BIDEN administration period, immigrants who are illegal or documented will appear in immigrants who will interview each person to determine whether they have an exile case. The majority of the Indians migrated from economic needs, but some also Religious or social backgrounds are afraid of persecution or sexual taste.

If they summarized the interview, they decided to give asylum from immigrant judges. This process often takes a few years, but it could remain in the United States.

This was what Gurpree would happen to him. He planned a familiar business to find a truck at a grocery store.

Instead, he found that he would return to the C-17 flight less than three weeks after entering the United States.

In a small house in Sultanpur Lodhi, a city in northern Fun, Gurpreet is now trying to repay his debt money and work for his family.

Aakriti Thapar’s additional report