AMRITSAR: A US plane carrying 116 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar International Airport late Saturday night, official sources said.

A C-17 aircraft landed at the airport around 11.35 pm as against the expected time of 10 pm, sources said. This is the second batch of such Indians to be deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of its crackdown on illegal immigrants.

It was not immediately clear whether the deportees were in shackles, like the previous batch was.

The deportees will be allowed to head to their homes after completion of formalities including immigration, verification, and background checks.

Many from the first batch of illegal immigrants landed here on February 5, most of them, from Punjab, said they wanted to migrate to the US for a better life for their families, but were duped by their agents. Their dreams were shattered when they were caught on the US border and sent back in shackles.

Earlier, there were reports that the plane would carry 119 immigrants, but as per an updated list of passengers, the number of deportees in the second batch was 116, sources said.

Of the fresh batch of deportees, 65 are from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, two each from Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Most of them are aged 18 to 30, as per the sources.

The families of some of the deportees reached the airport to receive them.

A third plane carrying 157 deportees is expected to land on February 16, sources said.

On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar airport. Of them, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, and 30 were from Punjab.

The family members of the second batch of illegal Indian immigrants deported seemed in a state of shock, with many of them saying that they raised money by pledging farm land and cattle to send them abroad for a bright future.

A family member of Daljit Singh, a native of Kurala Kalan village in the Tanda area of Hoshiarpur district, said a travel agent duped him.

Kamalpreet Kaur, the wife of Daljit, alleged that her husband had been deceived by the travel agent who promised him a direct flight to the US but instead, took him via the "donkey route" -- an illegal and risky pathway used by migrants to enter the US.