Mexico’s National Immigration Institute (INM) sent 311 undocumented migrants back to India on Wednesday night. Accompanied by federal immigration agents and National Guardsmen, the migrants were put aboard a Boeing 747 headed for New Delhi from Toluca International Airport. The migrants had been detained Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Sonora, Durango, Baja California and Mexico City before being transferred to the migrants’ center in Acayucan, Veracruz, for identification and transfer to Toluca.
Sources said each member of the group possibly paid Rs 25-30 lakh to the agents who arranged their travel to Mexico and promised to help them illegally cross over to the United States. The package included airfare, accommodation in Mexico and meals. The agents had purportedly cited a week to a month’s time to arrange their entry into the US.
The INM reported that the detainees included 310 men and one woman, all of whom were adults. The deportation comes after the Mexican government deployed thousands of National Guard troops to the border with Guatemala in June after pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump had threatened to levy tariffs on Mexican goods if Mexico did not slow the flow of drugs and migrants to the United States.