An Indian student was handcuffed, pinned to the ground at an airport in the US and deported back to India, a social media user who shared videos and pictures from the incident claimed.
"I witnessed a young Indian student being deported from Newark Airport last night— handcuffed, crying, treated like a criminal. He came chasing dreams, not causing harm. As an NRI, I felt helpless and heartbroken. This is a human tragedy," he wrote on X.
According to social media user Kunal Jain, a social entrepreneur, the student was speaking in Haryanvi, insisting that he wasn’t crazy, but the authorities were trying to make him look that way.
"These children get their visas and get on a flight in the morning. For some reason, they are unable to explain the reason for their visit to the immigration authorities and are sent back in the evening flight tied up like criminals. Every day 3-4 such cases are happening. There have been more such cases in the last few days," Jain said.
Jain urged Indian embassy in US and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to take up the matter. "Someone needs to find out what’s going on with him at New Jersey authorities. I found him disoriented," he wrote.
This comes amid the US government's intensified crackdown on international students by revoking visas without prior notice. From pro-Palestine protests to traffic violations, the reasons have varied case by case, often plunging students into a legal quagmire and widespread confusion.
According to the DHS Entry/Exit Overstay Report for F category visa holders, student visa overstays rose to 3.5% in FY 2023. Despite the lack of evidence-based, nationally representative surveys directly targeting the Indian immigrant student population, numerous reports suggest that India still remains part of the top ten countries in the world with the highest visa overstay rates.
Furthermore, one of the most concerning hypotheses regarding undocumented Indian immigrants suggests that over 1500 Indian nationals were deported from the US in FY 2024.
Source: India Today