Chandigarh:

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee on Sunday strongly condemned US authorities for allegedly not allowing Sikh deportees, who were part of the second batch of illegal Indian immigrants brought from America, to wear their turbans.

The SGPC statement came after some visuals appeared on social media showing Sikh deportees without turbans while completing their immigration formalities at the Amritsar airport.

A US military aircraft carrying 116 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar airport late Saturday night, with one deportee claiming they were handcuffed with their legs chained during the journey. The fresh batch of deportees included 65 immigrants from Punjab, 33 from Haryana and eight from Gujarat.

SGPC officials, who were deputed for providing ‘langar’ and bus service for deportees on Saturday night at the airport, provided ‘dastar’ (turban) to Sikh deportees.

One of the Sikh deportees also claimed that when they landed at the Amritsar airport, they were not wearing turbans. He said that when they entered the US illegally, they were asked to remove their turbans.

SGPC general secretary Gurcharan Singh Grewal condemned the US authorities for allegedly not allowing them to wear their turbans.

It is a matter of regret that deportees were brought in shackles and Sikh deportees were not wearing turbans, he said.

Grewal said the SGPC will soon raise the issue with the US authorities. “Turban is the part of a Sikh,” he said.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia too condemned the US authorities for allegedly sending Sikh deportees without turbans.

He also urged the Ministry of External Affairs to immediately take up the matter with the US authorities so that such an incident is never repeated in future. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Although President-elect Donald Trump had made mass deportations the cornerstone of his incoming administration, he might have to reign in on his plans since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director P.J. Lechleitner told the NBC News that they are “chronically underresourced” and need more funding.

ICE is currently reeling under a $230 million budget shortfall, even before Trump imposes the extra pressure of historic deportations on them, according to officials.

“We are running hot,” said the officials and revealed that the agency has been underfunded historically and under the duress of the Joe Biden administration to remove migrants after the change in asylum policy, more so.

The incoming Trump administration’s ambitious plans of mass deportations will cost more than $88 billion and Trump said that there is “no price tag” on his mass deportation plans, and has insisted on it being done.

He has also suggested utilising the country’s military to carry out the operation as much as the law allows.

With nearly 8 million immigrants in ICE’s tab, for every 7,000 cases, there is one ICE officer. Lechleitner said that this ratio is “not good” and other officials of ICE say that it is impossible to keep a tab on all migrants inside the country.

The ICE is facing a funding shortfall, despite a continuing resolution spending bill introduced in Congress. The agency’s operations, including detaining and deporting migrants, are exceeding its $8.7 billion annual budget. This shortfall may force ICE to release migrants due to insufficient funding for detention beds, following 2023’s record-high border crossings.

The continuing resolution is expected to pass, extending current funding levels until March 14. However, ICE’s funding requests have been higher, with a bipartisan border bill proposing $9.5 billion and the Biden administration’s fiscal year 2025 budget requesting $9.3 billion. These requests have not been approved by Congress, despite Republican calls for increased immigration enforcement.
 

According to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency report released on Thursday, more than 271,000 immigrants were deported from the US over the last fiscal year even as President Joe Biden pledged to pause deportations in 2021.

The change in decision comes in the wake of a surge in border crossings.

The number of immigrants released last year is the largest number deported in nearly a decade, even surpassing the numbers during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office.

The flow of deportations made by the Biden administration seems to be happening because of a streamlined process, as the report by ICE suggests, weeks before Trump assumes office.

Majority of the deportations in the year 2024 involved illegal migrants who were apprehended by border officials compared to those arrested in the country’s interior. About 82 per cent of immigrants deported were arrested by border officials.

Karoline Leavitt, who would serve as the national press secretary for the incoming administration said that Biden’s deportation numbers are feeble compared to the numbers of illegal immigration during his presidency. “On day one, President Trump will fix the immigration and national security nightmare that Joe Biden created by launching the largest mass deportation operation of illegal criminals in United States history,” she said.

According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the number of migrant encounters along the US-Mexico border have dropped to their lowest level since 2020.

Even though Trump has made mass deportations the cornerstone of his incoming administration, the Immigration machinery seems to be “running hot” on budget, with a $230 million shortfall.

And a shortfall could mean Trump might have to delay his “mass deportation” plans.

Washington:

President-elect Donald Trump is determined to not do business with countries that refuse to take back migrants.

“I’ll get them into every country, or we won’t do business with those countries,” Trump said in an interview with Time magazine after being picked as the 2024 “Person of the Year”. This is the second time he has been honoured with the title. He was recognised for his “historic comeback”.

“I want them out, and the countries have got to take them back, and if they don’t take them back, we won’t do business with those countries, and we will tariff those countries very substantially,” he added.

As Trump had already made clear by making border security and immigration policies the cornerstone of his campaign.

He said that he will make business “very hard” for countries that refuse to take back migrants, and they will be slapped with “substantial tariffs”.

“Whatever it takes to get them out. I don’t care. Honestly, whatever it takes to get them out. Again, I’ll do it absolutely within the confines of the law, but if it needs new camps, but I hope we’re not going to need too many because I want to get them out, and I don’t want them sitting in camp for the next 20 years.”

The soon-to-be 47th president also said that he does not want families to be separated, so regardless of their immigration status, parents and children will be deported together.

He reiterated that the US will let people in but only legally.

“We don’t want people to come in from jails. We don’t want the jails of Venezuela and many other countries, and not just South American countries. We don’t want the jails to be opened up into our country. We’re not accepting their prisoners. We’re not accepting their murders. We’re not accepting their people from mental institutions. We’re not doing it”, he said.

Trump emphasised that he intends to deport illegal immigrants by military force. “We’ll get National Guard, and we’ll go as far as I’m allowed to go, according to the laws of our country,” he answered.
 

Nearly 18,000 undocumented Indians in the United States face the risk of deportation, data revealed ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s January 20th inauguration. According to figures from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 17,940 Indians are among the 1.445 million individuals with final orders of removal.

For many of these undocumented Indians, securing legal status remains a major challenge. Numerous individuals are caught in prolonged legal proceedings, with hearings often scheduled years into the future. In the past three years, ICE has apprehended an average of 90,000 Indian nationals each year trying to enter the US illegally.

A significant portion of the undocumented Indians facing deportation come from high-migration states of Punjab, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, according to local immigration experts. India ranks 13th on ICE’s list of 208 countries with undocumented immigrants in the US, following nations like Honduras and Guatemala. India is one of the few Asian countries on the list, alongside China, which has 37,908 undocumented nationals in the country.

Compounding the issue, India has been labelled “uncooperative” by ICE due to delays in verifying citizenship and issuing travel documents for deportation. The US expects countries to assist by confirming the nationality of their citizens, conducting interviews, and facilitating their return, either through commercial or charter flights. India is currently one of 15 nations classified as uncooperative, alongside Pakistan, China, Iran, and Venezuela.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) is responsible for enforcing US immigration laws, focusing on the identification, arrest, detention, and deportation of non-citizens who are in violation of those laws.

In a recent press release, ICE underlines its focus on national security and public safety. The department said, “ERO officers prioritise enforcement actions based on agency and department priorities, funding, and capacity,” adding their operations were flexible enough to address situations such as increases in border crossings, changes in US laws, and unforeseen events like pandemics or natural disasters.

The incoming Donald Trump administration has made clear that it will intensify efforts to remove undocumented immigrants. As part of his immigration policy, Trump has pledged to prioritise the deportation of individuals with final removal orders, including those from India. The president-elect has also talked about his plans to involve the US military in deportation efforts, framing illegal immigration as a national security threat that requires decisive action.

After his re-election in November, Trump reaffirmed his pledge to reduce both legal and illegal immigration, promising to strengthen deportation efforts as part of his wider plan.

Imphal/Guwahati/New Delhi:

Five weeks before the Manipur ethnic clashes began in May 2023, a cabinet subcommittee comprising ministers from the three major communities visited three villages to make an assessment of the situation on “identification of Myanmarese immigrants/refugees”, reports submitted by the subcommittee show.

Tribal Affairs and Hills Minister Letpao Haokip, who belongs to the Kuki tribes, headed the subcommittee, with Water Resources Minister Awangbow Newmai, a Naga, and Law Minister Th Basanta Kumar Singh, a Meitei, as the two other members.

They visited the three villages between March 26, 2023 and April 1, 2023, and met Myanmar nationals – including a Member of Parliament from the neighbouring country – living in community halls under the watch of the village chiefs.

The Kuki tribes in Manipur still follow the archaic hereditary chieftainship system – blamed for power struggles among siblings and mushrooming of villages – which has been abolished even in neighbouring Mizoram where kindred tribes live.

The subcommittee never made subsequent visits after clashes broke out on May 3, 2023 between the Meitei community and over a dozen distinct tribes collectively known as Kuki, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur.

Subcommittee Chairman Seeks Separate Administration 

Letpao Haokip later joined the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs who went on to demand a separate administration carved out from Manipur. Kuki groups had raised the same demand in 2015 after nine people from their community were killed in police firing during a protest against three controversial bills tabled by the state government, then under the Congress party led by former chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

Meitei leaders say claims by the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs and frontal groups that they raised the demand for a separate administration only after the May 3 violence erupted, was a blatant lie.

By the time the subcommittee began their survey in late March 2023, tension had already permeated Kuki-dominated areas in southern Manipur after the government carried out an eviction drive in Churachandpur’s K Songjang village just a month ago. The subcommittee’s visits to the three villages also coincided with sporadic protests by Kuki groups against what they called illegal eviction from forests.

An NDTV report on June 21, 2023 citing preliminary documents filed by the subcommittee said over 2,000 Myanmar nationals have set up settlements inside Manipur and refused to be moved to designated shelters. They fled from the war between the ruling junta and ethnic insurgent groups claiming to fight for democracy.

The final copies of the subcommittee’s reports complete with visuals of the visit, which NDTV accessed now, show the three leaders repeatedly appealed to the village chiefs to persuade Myanmar nationals to live in designated shelter camps once the structures were ready.

The subcommittee visited Holenphai village in Tengnoupal district on March 26, Gamphazol village in Chandel district on March 29, and Singhat in Churachandpur district on April 1, 2023.

“Shri Letpao Haokip… highlighted the issue of illegal Myanmar nationals into Indian side which cause apprehension amongst general public as there is high chance of getting such immigrants getting naturalised amongst common native population because of similarity in culture and dialect. He further highlighted that even though such cases are not reported, there is apprehension that many of them had already resided in the main Churachandpur town area in rented houses,” the report of the visit to Singhat said.

“Shri Th. Basanta Kumar Singh also appeals to all illegal immigrants to come forward and join the shelter homes, not hiding amongst locals, supporting the humanitarian goodwill gesture extended by the government,” the report of the subcommittee’s visit to Holenphai – the first village they went to on March 26, 2023 – said.

Border Pillars At Gamphazol Village

Chandel district’s Gamphazol village presented a unique problem. The district commissioner said the IMB (Indo-Myanmar Border) falling in Chandel district “is different from other neighbouring districts” as it has a sparsely populated, vast stretch of forest covering 60-75 km between Border Pillar No. 72 and 49.

“It was also suggested that only one temporary shelter may not be feasible to cater [to] all such immigrants along the stretch and as such temporary shelters at Gamphazol in the northern side and Somdal in the Southern side [were proposed],” the report of the subcommittee’s visit to this border village on March 29, 2023 said. The district commissioner said they found 628 “illegal immigrants” along the stretch of IMB falling in Chandel district, out of which 250 were at Gamphazol village.

Subcommittee Meets Myanmar MP Ousted By Junta

In Holenphai, the three ministers met Thamsei Haokip, a Myanmar Member of Parliament before the junta overthrew the government, who told the subcommittee that he would follow all rules and regulations while being a refugee in India and would return to Myanmar once the issue there is “over/settled”, the report said.

“He [Thamsei Haokip] pointed out that due to the military junta in their country, they have come to Manipur being the nearest state of the world’s largest democratic country expecting humanitarian support [to] them at this juncture when civilians cannot stay in Myanmar out of the issue. He appeals to the state government to provide identification cards and to allow/facilitate earning livelihood. He also asserted that they will go back once the issue in Myanmar is settled…”

The foreign MP asked the subcommittee to shift Myanmar nationals earlier detained as illegal immigrants to the proposed shelter homes, and requested not to treat them as illegal immigrants since they fled from the junta rule, where “civilians are being killed”.

An activist from one of the Kuki tribes, who claims to know the Myanmar MP personally, told NDTV that the foreign politician has deep links with the Kuki National Army (Burma), or KNA(B). Thamsei Haokip has taken shelter in a relatively safe, forested area along the India-Myanmar border, the source said, adding it will be a big ask for the Meitei community to trust the likes of Thamsei Haokip due to the precedent set by another Myanmar-origin leader, Thanglianpau Guite.

The Manipur government has blamed unchecked entry of illegal immigrants from Myanmar as one of the factors responsible for the violence. It has also cited “unnatural growth of villages” owing to illegal immigrants being allegedly accommodated by village chiefs.

Precedent Set: Myanmar MP-Turned-Militant Group Leader

Meitei civil society groups are sensitive to any mention of Myanmar-origin leaders in the context of Manipur. Chief Minister N Biren Singh has said this sensitivity is due to the manner in which how Thanglianpau Guite – the “Myanmar-born” politician who contested the MP election in his country and who later became the chairman of the militant group Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) – was welcomed by the then Congress government when P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

The ZRA is a signatory to the controversial suspension of operations (SoO) agreement, which lapsed in February this year.

Over two dozen Kuki-Zo insurgent groups come under two umbrella groups – the Kuki National Organisation (KNO), and the United People’s Front (UPF). These two representing the others have signed the SoO agreement, which says the insurgents are to stay at designated camps with weapons kept in locked storage, to be monitored regularly.

Meitei leaders have alleged the SoO groups have been working to strengthen themselves over the years by taking advantage of the ceasefire, until a time came to engineer a violent attack for a separate land. Geopolitical analysts have speculated the Kuki armed groups were used as mercenaries to fight Meitei and Naga militants operating in the India-Myanmar border.

Myanmar’s government-in-exile in a statement in June 2023 – a month into the Manipur clashes – asked its nationals who are “temporarily sheltering” in India “to refrain from any acts that are prejudicial to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.”

The National Unity Government (NUG) in the statement told Myanmar nationals “sheltering” in India and their organisations to avoid unnecessary involvement in India’s politics and administrative activity, and asked them to live in harmony with the host communities. The NUG also appealed to the Myanmar nationals to not get involved in drug trafficking.

The Manipur government on January 18, 2023 announced it would form the subcommittee to identify “Myanmarese immigrants/refugees”; the state government on February 16 announced the composition of the three-member panel, and on March 24 it ordered the police to check the number of Myanmarese immigrants in five districts – Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur, Pherzawl, and Kamjong.

While the February 16 announcement referred to the subcommittee as one that would work on identifying “Myanmarese immigrants/refugees” in the state, the reports of the subcommittee’s visits referred to them as “illegal immigrants”.

Myanmar Refugees In Mizoram

Neighbouring Mizoram has taken in over 40,000 Myanmar refugees. Mizoram government sources told NDTV on November 10 that it has been nearly three years since the coup in Myanmar, and feeding and taking care of all the displaced people and refugees in a small state as Mizoram remained a huge challenge. There were also concerns over a rise in drug trafficking. The sources said the Mizoram government can’t thank the central government enough for the massive help it has been giving to ensure enough resources are available with the state to tide over the refugee crisis.

“The people of Mizoram are not immune to the strain that all these efforts bring. There is especially a growing dissatisfaction even in our own community, especially from the intellectual circle. Yes, we are welcoming them as brothers and sisters, but what are we getting back in return? We are getting drugs, this and that. So the frustration is growing, obviously,” the source told NDTV.

The Kuki tribes have criticised the Manipur government over not treating Myanmar refugees in a humane way as Mizoram has done.

There are many villages of the Kuki tribes in the hills surrounding the Meitei-dominated valley. The clashes have killed over 250 people and internally displaced nearly 50,000. The general category Meiteis want to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category, while the Kuki tribes want a separate administration carved out of Manipur, citing discrimination and unequal share of resources and power with the Meiteis.

New Delhi:

Illegal immigrants from war-torn Myanmar have been found building houses in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district without informing the state authorities, officials have said. The illegal settlement was found between pillar number 82 and 89 near the border with Myanmar by volunteers of the Maring tribe, officials said.

Following reports of a significant number of Myanmar nationals pouring into Maring tribe’s areas in Tengnoupal district, the Rilram Area Maring Organisation, or RAMO, sent out volunteers to check their villages near border pillar numbers 82 to 89.

RAMO told the authorities they found a considerable presence of illegal Myanmar settlers building houses and other structures. The areas RAMO volunteers visited were Chanringphai, Choktong, N Satang, and Sangtong villages under Lamlong Khunou circle.

Village chiefs in the area have complained they were no longer able to manage the influx of refugees from Myanmar, the RAMO volunteers said.

A Naga MLA in Manipur had on May 9 written to Chief Minister N Biren Singh alleging the number of “illegal” Myanmar nationals living in shelter homes in eight villages “have outnumbered” locals, leading to insecurity among the locals. Naga People’s Front (NPF) MLA Leishiyo Keishing in the letter alleged “illegal immigrants” have often attacked villagers in Kamjong and Kasom Khullen subdivisions over petty matters. The NPF is a BJP ally in Manipur.

Several Naga civil bodies and organisations in Manipur last week asked Home Minister Amit Shah to repatriate illegal Myanmar immigrants to their country. After visiting border areas on a fact-finding mission, the United Naga Council (UNC), Naga Women’s Union (NWU), All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM), and Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPM-HR) gave a memorandum to Mr Shah.

Despite the Centre announcing the scrapping of the free-movement regime (FMR) in the Manipur section of the border, the Myanmar nationals have been seen moving back and forth across the border with ease late at night, according to the RAMO volunteers.

The volunteers raised questions whether the forces posted along these border pillar markings have informed the local authorities of this development. Officials said the state government was not aware of this new settlement.

There is broad acknowledgment among officials in the Centre and the state that illegal immigration from Myanmar was a key factor in the unprecedented ethnic violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the Chin-Kuki-Zo tribes.

Mr Shah in August 2023 had told Lok Sabha the problem in Manipur started with the influx of Chin-Kuki refugees from neighbouring Myanmar after the military rulers there started a crackdown against insurgents in 2021. The refugees started settling down in Manipur’s jungles, raising fears of a demographic change in the region, Mr Shah had said, adding rumours that refugee settlements have been declared as villages was the final straw.

The Manipur government maintains the state has seen a significant rise in the population of illegal immigrants from war-torn Myanmar, and many have been found building houses and clearing forests, which are symptomatic of a broader, unresolved issue.

The ethnic clashes between the Meitei community and the Kuki tribes began over cataclysmic disagreements on sharing land, resources, affirmative action policies, and political representation, mainly with the ‘general’ category Meiteis seeking to be included under the Scheduled Tribes category. Over 220 have been killed, and more than 50,000 have been internally displaced.

The latest flare-up happened in Jiribam, neighbouring Assam. The Meitei community and the Hmar tribe burned each other’s homes after two people from their communities were found murdered, and both sides blamed the other for it.

A section of the Hmar and Thadou tribes and their leaders, however, have said they do not identify with those who participated in the violence in Jiribam.

The Rongmei Naga tribes, too, had opposed a 24-hour shutdown of National Highway 37 called by Kuki groups in protest against the Jiribam violence. The Rongmei Nagas had said the highway belonged to all communities, and condemned the shutdown call as “unwarranted”.

Imphal:

After the Manipur government, several Naga civil bodies and organisations in the state have asked Home Minister Amit Shah to repatriate illegal Myanmar immigrants to their country, sources said on Saturday. Sources said that the Naga organisations submitted a memorandum to the Home Minister earlier this week requesting him to deport illegal Myanmar immigrants.

The memorandum pointed out that around 5,457 illegal immigrants from Myanmar are being sheltered in eight Tangkhul villages in Manipur’s Kamjong district adjoining Myanmar and they have outnumbered the local residents.

After visiting the Indo-Myanmar border areas recently on a fact-finding mission, the United Naga Council (UNC), Naga Women’s Union (NWU), All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM) and Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPM-HR) submitted the memorandum to the Home Minister.

A UNC leader said a section of migrants are involved in illegal and anti-social activities and the law enforcing agencies are unable to effectively control such activities.

“Although biometrics have been captured for 5,173 persons, monitoring the activities of adult male inmates (illegal immigrants) has become a huge challenge as the authority cannot regularly conduct verification exercises amidst the fluctuating numbers of inmates between daytime and night in those makeshift refugee camps,” the UNC leader said, requesting anonymity.

A Manipur home department official said the state government in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs and the central security forces has deported 115 Myanmar nationals, including women and children in three phases since March 8.

The Myanmar immigrants have been deported through the Moreh border in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district.

Manipur has around 400 km of unfenced border with Myanmar.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said earlier that although India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it has given shelter and aid to those fleeing the crisis in Myanmar on humanitarian grounds.

Since the military took over Myanmar more than three years ago, at least 8,000 Myanmarese have taken shelter in Manipur’s Tengnoupal, Chandel, Churachandpur and Kamjong districts, while over 36,000 people have taken shelter in Mizoram.

Following the advice of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Manipur government has been collecting the biometric details of the Myanmar nationals sheltered in the state.

The Mizoram government, however, initially turned down the MHA’s appeal to collect biometric data of the Myanmar refugees. Later, the state government decided to collect the biometric details of the refugees.

Imphal/New Delhi:

An MLA in Manipur has written to Chief Minister N Biren Singh alleging the number of “illegal” Myanmar nationals living in shelter homes in eight villages “have outnumbered” the locals, leading to insecurity among the locals. Naga People’s Front (NPF) MLA Leishiyo Keishing in the letter to Mr Singh on May 9 alleged “illegal immigrants” have often attacked villagers in Kamjong and Kasom Khullen subdivisions over petty matters.

The police are unable to detain the troublemakers and control the situation as they don’t have enough personnel in the border area, Mr Keishing said.

“… Even local customary law cannot control/bind them because of the foreign custody beliefs of the refugees. There have been numbers of incidence of killings and kidnappings of local residents committed by the immigrants, but the culprits could not be apprehended as they abscond and crosses the border where neither customary law nor Indian law could be enforced,” said the MLA of the NPF, which is an ally of the ruling BJP.

Sources in the Manipur Police, however, told NDTV they do not have first information reports (FIRs) or case diary entries on the alleged “killings” and “kidnappings” by “illegal immigrants” as claimed by the NPF MLA from the Phungyar reserved assembly constituency. Calls and messages to Mr Keishing went unanswered.

‘Targetting Only Kukis’

BJP MLA Paolienlal Haokip, who is among the 10 Kuki-Zo MLAs behind the push for carving out a “separate administration” from Manipur, told NDTV that if the data quoted by Mr Keishing is correct, then it clearly indicates the number of refugees coming from war-torn Myanmar is highest in Ukhrul and Kamjong districts.

Mr Haokip alleged the state government focussed only on Kuki villages, and not the villages where tribes other than Kukis live.

“I cannot comment on the authenticity of the data, but if true, it is proof that refugee inflow of Myanmar citizens is highest in Ukhrul and Kamjong districts. Further, whereas the state government choose to highlight the data for Phaikoh, a Kuki village, it chose to hide data for other villages which are Tangkhul villages, accounting for 3,866 refugees out of 5,457,” Mr Haokip told NDTV.

Mr Keishing in his letter to the Chief Minister quoted data announced earlier by the state government, which put the number of refugees from Myanmar at 5,457, out of which the biometrics data of 5,173 has been recorded. He requested the Chief Minister not to repeat “the history of granting Indian citizenships to immigrants in 1968”, referring to a period when 1,500 Kuki refugee families from Myanmar who came to Manipur the previous year were allowed to settle permanently.

Another Manipur BJP MLA, Rajkumar Imo Singh, doubled down on the request by the MLA from the alliance partner on ensuring every Myanmar national who came to Manipur is deported. “… Let us all secure our border and the people of the state, for which the government is taking up all legal and appropriate measures to protect its people,” Rajkumar Imo Singh, who is also the son-in-law of the Chief Minister, said in a post on the microblogging website X.

As highlighted by Kamjong MLA Mr Leishiyo Keishing, the total number of illegal influx touched 5800 in the area of Kamjong District, outnumbering the local populace, detection of such illegal migrants along with capturing of biometrics has been done for more than 5100 of them…. pic.twitter.com/08mIVhEWTn

— Rajkumar Imo Singh (Modi Ka Parivaar) (@imosingh) May 13, 2024

The Manipur government on May 8 announced the completion of the first phase of deportation of illegal immigrants from Myanmar “without any discrimination”.

‘Branded As Illegal Immigrants’

The Kuki-Zo tribes have been for long alleging the Biren Singh government has singled them out in targetted policies such as clearing alleged encroachments from forests, and the drive against illegal opium cultivation. There is a massive pushback by the Kuki-Zo tribes with allegations that the state government is bent on branding them in Manipur as “illegal immigrants” from Myanmar, with the goal of taking over tribal lands.

Kuki-Zo leaders and their civil society groups have alleged the Manipur government’s complicity in the violence between the valley-dominant Meitei community and the Kuki-Zo tribes, who are dominant in southern Manipur’s hill districts and a few other areas.

Over 220 have died and 50,000 have been internally displaced across Manipur since ethnic violence broke out in May 2023.