Indians among those arrested in US operation targeting ‘criminal aliens’

• A 5-day operation by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Enforcement and Removal Operations departments in Houston led to 45 people being detained.
• The detainees include illegal immigrants from India.
  
• Of the 45 people arrested, 42 had criminal records while 15 had already been deported once before.

The immigration policies of the US continue to have their far-reaching effect with 45 more people being detained by the American authorities, a lot of whom are Indian. This comes just a week after the US Border Patrol found 78 illegals immigrants locked in a refrigerator at a checkpoint in the southern state of Texas.

Of the people picked up over the five-day operation by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) departments, 15 had been deported at least once before while 42 had criminal records.

According to US administration statistics, Indians who enter the US illegally are largely from Punjab or Gujarat.

The crackdown on immigration in the US has led to requests from the North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) to the Indian authorities to focus on the network of human traffickers that are responsible for convincing Indians to move overseas illegally. Reports indicate that the traffickers charge nearly ₹3 to 3.5 million to just get people over the border.

More than crossing the border illegally, the bigger issue is that most these routes put the immigrants’ lives in danger. And, in case the traffickers are unable to deliver on the their promise, the immigrants are stuck in debt, deported or exploited. In certain cases, the journey proves to be fatal.

Previous reports have already shed light on how nearly a 100 Indians are already being held in detentions centers in New Mexico and Oregon.