With dreams of a bright future and a better life for their families back home, youths from Haryana's Kurukshetra district broke the bank to pay agents to help them settle in the US.

They traversed treacherous routes, crossing several rivers and forests while facing extortion and getting roughed up, to reach the US. But their American Dream turned into a nightmare as they were handcuffed by US authorities and deported.

Recounting the horror faced by 27-year-old Robin Handa, his father Manjit Singh said his son travelled across Guyana, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala, crossed a sea and passed through jungles, staying hungry for days, to reach the Mexico-US border.

Handa, who studied till class 12, left his native Ismailabad village in Kurukshetra district on July 18 last year and by the time he reached the US border, he had paid Rs 45 lakh to different agents while his mobile phone was also snatched, his father claimed.

He was handed over to the "immigration mafia" in Mexico and they tortured him for money. Here he gave them Rs 20 lakh, Singh said.

The distraught father of two said that his elder son had gone to Australia for studies and the younger one was insistent on going to America.

With the dreams of an improved financial condition in ruins, Singh now blames the travel agent for defrauding them with the false promise of getting Handa settled in the US.

Robin Handa was among the first batch of 104 Indians who were deported by the US. A C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US military carrying these illegal immigrants from various states landed at Amritsar airport on Wednesday, as part of a crackdown the Donald Trump administration resolved to carry out when it was sworn in last month.

Of these illegal immigrants, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.

Superintendent of Police, Kurukshetra, Varun Singla said out of the 33 deportees from Haryana, fourteen are from Kurukshetra district.

Khushpreet Singh (18), a resident of Chammukalan village in the district, spent Rs 40 lakh to reach the US. His father Jaswant Singh had arranged the money by mortgaging his farm land.

"Around 15 days ago, we received a call from Khushpreet that he had reached the US border and would cross it soon," he said. "After that, we lost communication with him." The family came to know about his deportation only when he reached Amritsar onboard the US military plane. Though relieved that Khushpreet has reached home safely, the family is saddled with debt and stares at a bleak future.

A 28-year-old deportee from Ambala, who returned to his village on Wednesday night, shared his sufferings during his travel to the US. On the condition of anonymity, he said that his family spent Rs 40 lakh to facilitate his journey to America.

The money was arranged by selling a part of an agricultural land, he said. But the journey was not smooth. The agent took him through 'dunki routes', crossing several rivers and forests to reach the US border.

He, however, got caught at the US border 15 days ago. He strongly advised youths not to adopt any illegal means to go aboard.

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