(MENAFN- NewsBytes)
Nearly 100 Indians held at 2 detention centers in US
22 Jun 2018
The Indian Mission in the US has established contact with two immigration detention centers where nearly 100 Indians, mostly from Punjab, are detained for illegally entering the country through its southern border.
According to officials, around 40-45 Indians are at a federal detention center in the Southern American State of New Mexico while 52 Indians, mostly Sikhs and Christians, are held in Oregon.
Most of the detainees want asylum: Indian Embassy
Fact
The Indian Embassy said, "Most of the detainees are asking for asylum claiming that they 'experienced violence or persecution' in their home country."
27,000 Indians were apprehended at US border: FOIA
Aprrehension
Satnam Singh Chahal of the North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) believes that thousands of Indians are languishing in US jails.
According to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), from 2013-15 more than 27,000 Indians were apprehended at the US border. Of these, over 4,000 were women and 350 were children.
Over 900 Indians were prisoned in various US jails for staying illegally in the country.
Traffickers encourage young Punjabis to enter US illegally: NAPA's Chahal
Illegal entry
Satnam Singh Chahal alleged that there is a nexus of human traffickers, officials, and politicians in Punjab, who encourage young Punjabis to leave their homes to illegally enter the US and charge Rs. 35-50L from each individual.
He urged the Punjab government to strictly enforce human trafficking laws that have been passed by the State Assembly in recent years.
Indians pay Rs. 35-40L to human smugglers for crossing border
Crossing the border
According to immigration attorney Akansha Kalra, largest numbers of Indians who enter the US illegally are from Punjab and Gujarat.
Sharing her experience, Kalra said that young Indians pay around Rs. 35-40L to human smugglers just to help them cross the border.
"With this kind of administration policy, hopefully, they would get deterred by it. But so far they keep on coming," she said.
Most of the Indians nabbed at Mexico border
Fact
Most of these Indians get nabbed at the Mexico border, get processed in Texas and then shipped out to the Pennsylvania detention center, which is one of the largest of such detention facilities in the US.
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