US advertises ‘cuffs and shackles’ treatment for illegal immigrants in video
The White House posted a video on Tuesday showing illegal immigrants in shackles while preparing them to board a deportation flight in the US as part of the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The video comes amid an uproar by opposition leaders in India over the treatment of undocumented individuals on deportation flights.
In the 41-second video, the clip shows an officer preparing a man in shackles to board a deportation flight. The camera then pans to a set of handcuffs and chains kept on the airport tarmac. An officer pulls a set of chains and handcuffs out of a basket.
An immigrant, whose face was not shown, is seen with his hands cuffed and ankles tied by a chain as he walks past an officer. Another shot shows a man getting his handcuffs linked together and a man’s feet in chains while walking up a stairway to a plane.
A man is also seen boarding an aircraft in shackles. None of the men shown in the video have their faces visible.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also retweeted the video with the caption, “Haha wow.”
Earlier this month, three US military aircraft carrying 332 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar. All the deportees complained that they were in shackles and claimed little or no access to the washroom and food during the flights.
US Border Patrol (UBSP) chief Michael W Banks earlier shared a video showing the deportation of “illegal aliens” to India aboard an American military aircraft. The video triggered a massive uproar in India, with Opposition parties flagging the “inhuman treatment” of Indian deportees from the US.
On February 6, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told Parliament that the use of restraints on the deportees was a part of the US’s standard operating procedure (SOP). He assured the Opposition that India was engaging the Trump administration to ensure that the returning deportees were not mistreated in any manner.
While confirming that the male deportees were handcuffed and chained, Jaishankar asserted that women and children were not restrained.
As videos showing illegal immigrants chained and handcuffed continue to surface, the Congress on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on a visit to the US recently, of not conveying to Trump about the outrage over the shackling of Indians being deported from America.
