92 Indians locked up in US
CAUGHT IN NET There is no readily available count of the number of Indians being held across the US for illegal entry
At least 40 more Indians are being held for allegedly entering the United States illegally, taking the number of such detainees from India to 92, or possibly more.
The group of 40 is being held at a federal detention centre at Otero in New Mexico state.
There wasn’t much information available about them and a response was awaited from the US agency that apprehends and detains illegal migrants to questions about the exact number of detainees, where they are from and how long have they been in custody.
The Indian embassy in Washington confirmed Indians were being held at the Otero facility and said it has sought consular access to them.
Another group of 52 people from India, many of them identified in reports in the US media as Punjabi and Hindi speakers, has been held in a federal detention facility at Sheridan in Oregon state for some weeks after illegally entering the US through the border with Mexico.
The number of Indians currently in US custody for illegally entering the country is at least 92.
It could be higher as more instances, such as the one on Thursday, come to be known, experts said.
There is no readily available count of the number of Indians being held across the US for illegally entering the country.
A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the organisation did not have the numbers and a wider search is required.
These numbers might seem like a surge given the Trump administration’s stated aim of stopping illegal immigration, with the recent emphasis on a “zero tolerance” policy for illegal migrants. But there has been a steady flow for many years of people from a part of India who have falsely claimed persecution at home while citing questionable evidence that has been upheld by US courts.
The new group of Indian detainees came to light on Thursday, the day after President Donald Trump ordered an end to his administration’s controversial practice of separating children from families illegally crossing the border as part of the “zero tolerance” crackdown on illegal migrants.
WASHINGTON: