‘We were so happy when our children reached US...now they have returned dejected & heartbroken’

Lalru couple boarded a Dubai flight on May 27 last year and since then have been struggling to reach America. After journeying through Darien Gap, a 97 km stretch of forest and mountains that connects Panama and Columbia, the couple entered the US 15 days back. Family then found out they were being deported.

Eerie silence hung over Lalru’s Jaula Khurd village on Sunday morning after the couple who were in the second batch of the deportees reached home. The couple, Gurpreet Singh, 28 and his wife Amanpreet Kaur, 23, who according to their family are still processing their ordeal and have refused to talk to anyone.

Family members of the Lalru couple who were deported in the second flight from the US on February 15. (HT Photo)

“We paid ₹80 lakh in instalments to the agent who promised to send my son and daughter-in-law legally to America. We took loans and borrowed money from relatives or associates. We were so happy the day our children went abroad after many failed attempts and now we have received them back broken and disheartened battling depression,” Jaswinder Singh, father of Gurpreet Singh, said.

Jaswinder Singh is an ASI at IT City Police Station in Mohali.

After searching for a job after completing graduation, the couple who got married in 2023 decided to settle abroad and approached many immigration agents.

The couple boarded a Dubai flight on May 27 last year and since then have been struggling to reach America.

After journeying through Darien Gap, a 97 km stretch of forest and mountains that connects Panama and Columbia, the couple entered the US 15 days back.

“We last interacted with our children on February 5 over the phone and they informed us that they entered the US. We were shocked to know that our children are also part of the deportees and would reach Amritsar late evening”, Jaswinder Singh said.

The family sought a crackdown against the immigration agents who betray people and send them abroad illegally, forcing them to lose lands or take hefty loans.

Tarnveer, 24, of Kheda village in Mohali district paid ₹50 lakh and spent nine months on the road in an effort to reach the US. On Saturday, he was among the second batch to be deported back.

His father Gulzar Singh retired from Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU).