Does a photo show handcuffed and chained Indians being deported from the U.S.? No, that's not true: The photo shows people from Guatemala sitting on a military aircraft at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas awaiting deportation to Guatemala. The photo previously appeared in several January 2025 media reports.
The claim the picture showed people from India appeard in a viral post on X (archived here) published on February 5, 2025 with a caption that read:
Indians handcuffed & chained while deporting from US? Too much AmritKaal? @PMOIndia @DrSJaishankar?
This is what the post looked like:
(Source: screenshot from x.com taken by Lead Stories on February 5, 2025 at 11:13:25 UTC)
The photo has been been online since late January 2025 when it appeared in several news reports about a deportation flight to Guatemala, for example in The Independent (archived here), the Clinton Herald (archived here) and the Denver Gazette (archived here).
(Image: screenshot collage by Lead Stories on February 5, 2025 at 11:17:39 UTC)
The photo is also available on stock photo website alamy.com (archived here) where it is credited to "AP Photo/Christian Chaves" and described as:
Migrants wearing face masks and shackles on their hands and feet sit on a military aircraft at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Tx., Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, awaiting their deportation to Guatemala. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
The photo was also reviewed by Newschecker and The Quint.
