Around 70 Punjabi youths in Oregon prison

JALANDHAR: Amid reports that 123 asylum-seeking immigrants have been detained at Sheridan federal prison in Oregon state of the United States, and several are from India, a 20-year-old Punjabi youth has told his family back here and the North American Punjabi Association that around 70 among the detainees are Punjabis, with some having been imprisoned several months ago.
His mother (her name is being withheld at the family’s request) said that he has been held there since February 6, 2017 after being caught by the immigration authorities. “He told us that around 50 Punjabis were recently shifted there and some were already lodged there,” the Jalandhar resident told TOI.

“I spoke to him on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday and he told me that there were around 70 Punjabi youth, all of whom who wanted to somehow reach the United States, being held there. It is happening as the Punjab police failed to tighten noose around illegal human traffickers who have been operating with impunity and several youths have gone missing en route to the US or other countries,” the North American Punjabi Association executive director, Satnam Singh Chahal, said.

“My nephew also accompanied him and he managed to reach the US a year ago. During phone calls, he narrated that he even saw skeletons on the way when he was asked to walk through a forest area. He said that it was highly possible that the skeletons were of the people who also wanted to reach the US. He had flown from India on October 26 and was taken to the US through Panama and Mexico,” the 20-year-old’s mother revealed.

“He was desperate to reach the US after one of his cousins managed to reach there four years ago. We have already spent around Rs 45 lakh, including Rs 15 lakh on lawyers. Two of these were of Punjabi origin and they us assured that they would manage relief for him and got thousands of dollars to their contacts in India, but they also failed us,” she said. “Now, they don’t even pick up our phone calls."

The youth’s mother also revealed that they had sold a house and borrowed money apart from spending their savings on sending him abroad and the travel agent had washed his hands off the issue, saying that he could not do anything.

“My son told me that last night officials came to him to get his signatures on papers about deportation and he refused to sign them, but they told him that he would be deported to India on September 19,” the woman added.