Asked to remove all our clothes including turbans… mentally tortured: US deportee from Punjab

Jaswinder Singh, 21, from Pandori Arian village of Dharamkot in Moga district, started his illegal journey to the US after selling his family’s 1.5 kila of land and mortgaging their two-room house. The family even had to sell their buffaloes to raise Rs 44 lakh, which they paid to an agent to get Jaswinder to the US.

Close to midnight on Saturday, Jaswinder was among the second batch of Indian nationals deported by the US. It was only when he reached Amritsar airport that he was able to wear his turban again—nearly 20 days after being detained by US authorities upon crossing the US-Mexico border illegally on January 27.

Jaswinder said, “As soon as I was detained on January 27 and taken to the detention centre, they asked me to remove all my clothes, including my turban. We were allowed to wear only a T-shirt, a lower, socks, and shoes. They also removed our shoelaces. I and other Sikh youths asked them to at least return our turbans, but they refused. They said, ‘Who will be responsible if any of you hangs self to death?’ For all the days we were at the detention centre, we were not allowed to wear a turban. It was only after reaching Amritsar airport that I got my luggage back and wrapped my head with a parna (a cloth worn by Sikh men to cover their heads).”

Jaswinder said he wanted to go to the US to support his family, as his father was a heart patient and could no longer work. “Now we are under a debt of Rs 44 lakh and have no idea how we will repay it. We even mortgaged our house,” said Jaswinder, a Class 10 pass, who left home in December last year and first landed in Prague, Czech Republic, from Delhi before reaching the US-Mexico border via Spain, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.

“I reached the border on January 26, but since it was raining heavily, my agent made me cross on January 27. I was caught within minutes. My agent had also promised that once I was detained, he would bail me out of the detention centre, but he never fulfilled this promise. Now I want my money back. The Punjab government should make him return it,” he said.

Alleging “mental torture” in the detention centre and on the US military plane that ferried them back to Amritsar, Jaswinder said, “On the flight, our hands and feet were chained. We boarded the plane on January 13, and for nearly three days, we were inside without knowing where we were being taken. If anyone stood up even for a minute to stretch, the US authorities on board would reprimand us and order us to sit down. We shivered in the cold, as we were given only plastic sheets, which were not enough in the biting cold.”

“Now I don’t have any money to go abroad again, either to the US or anywhere else. I want my money back from the agent,” said Jaswinder, who has four siblings to support.