A video showing an Indian youth being handcuffed and pinned to the floor at a US airport, has sparked outrage and concern even as violent protests continue in Los Angeles against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
The video, posted on X by Indian-American social entrepreneur Kunal Jain, shows the young man pinned to the ground by Port Authority Police and being handcuffed.
“This poor kid's parent won't know what's happening to him. @IndianEmbassyUS @DrSJaishankar he was to be boarded last night in the same flight with me but he never got boarded. Someone needs to find out what's going on with him at New Jersey authorities. I found him disoriented,” Jain said in his post.
Here more videos and @IndianEmbassyUS need to help here. This poor guy was speaking in Haryanvi language. I could recognise his accent where he was saying “में पागल नहीं हूँ , ये लोग मुझे पागल साबित करने में लगे हुए हे” pic.twitter.com/vV72CFP7eu
— Kunal Jain (@SONOFINDIA) June 8, 2025
Jain, who is the President of Health Bots AI, recorded the video at the Newark airport in New Jersey. He said that the boy was crying, spoke in Haryanvi, and was treated like a criminal.
Jain termed the incident deeply inhumane and a human tragedy, and tagged the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C. and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in his post.
He added that three to four such cases happen daily.
After the original post gained traction, the Indian Consulate in New York said that they would get in touch with local authorities to investigate the situation further.
Jain, who captured both photos and videos of the incident, said he did not know what happened to the boy or whether he got back to his parents.
The boy is arrested in the video by officers wearing uniforms that say port authority police department, who looks after transit security in New York and New Jersey. In the video the boy repeated that he was “not mad, these people are making me mad”
“These children come to America by flight in the morning with a visa, but if they are not able to explain properly to the immigration officers why they have come, then they are sent back by the evening flight. And that too with their hands and legs tied like a criminal,” Jain added.
Reactions to the video ranged from concern to criticism, with some netizens asking why the boy went to India.
The incident comes in the wake of the violent protests happening in Los Angeles against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in the US. Masked ICE agents have been making multiple arrests and deportations in the US as part of the crackdown on illegal immigration under President Donald Trump’s directive.
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Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh alleged that the Narendra Modi government is continuously failing to protect the honour of India and Indians. Party leaders shared the video and pictures of the Indian student handcuffed and pinned to the floor at USA's Newark Airport.
Congress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera too tagged a post on X with the video, and said, "This is too painful, too humiliating and too distressing to watch. As a country, why should we tolerate this humiliation?"
