Kunal Jain called the incident a "collective failure".
Kunal Jain, an Indian-American entrepreneur who witnessed an Indian man being handcuffed and pinned to the ground at the Newark Airport in the US, said that the incident was "deeply unsettling". Mr Jain had posted a video of the man being "treated like a criminal" on X, which went viral and triggered outrage on social media.
According to Mr Jain, there were around 50 people waiting for the flight, but no one dared to say anything to the immigration officials. He said that the young man was visibly disoriented and violent.
"The reason I think he was pinned down is that he was a little violent, and he was feeling disoriented. I don't know why he was disoriented. What happens when there is a violent person, they are not allowed on the plane. So, the officials called the pilot, he said we can't take him on the plane because he's a threat to other passengers. When that happened, they pinned him down," he told NDTV.
"The worst part was when the other police officials came, at least seven to eight, they emptied the whole queue, and they tied his legs and hands and held him. At that moment, I literally started crying. Why did they do that, and so publicly," Mr Jain said, calling the moment a "human tragedy".
I witnessed a young Indian student being deported from Newark Airport last night— handcuffed, crying, treated like a criminal. He came chasing dreams, not causing harm. As an NRI, I felt helpless and heartbroken. This is a human tragedy. @IndianEmbassyUS #immigrationraids pic.twitter.com/0cINhd0xU1
— Kunal Jain (@SONOFINDIA) June 8, 2025
There were communication issues between the Indian man and the officials as the former was speaking in Hindi and Haryanvi, Mr Jain said.
"The authorities were saying that they did not understand Hindi, and he was speaking in a Haryanvi language too. I thought I could probably help out. I went there, asked a police officer if I could help them understand what he was saying. But he didn't allow me to do so. What the official did instead was call more police," he said.
According to the witness, the officers were telling the student to "shut down", while the Indian man was yelling, "Mai pagal nahi hu, yeh mujhe pagal bana rahe hai. Mai pagal nahi hu, yeh mujhe pagal sabit kar rahe hai (I'm not mad, they are trying to make me mad, prove that I'm mentally unstable).
"The problem was communication. It's very hard to believe that this guy could not understand English, of course, he could. It's that he was stressed and disoriented, and that's why he was speaking in Hindi. Something might have occurred at the port of entry. The immigration officers may have found that he is disoriented, and that's why they denied his visa. But in most cases, what they do is they keep the person's dignity intact," Mr Jain said.
Calling it a collective failure, Mr Jain said, "It made me think of all the young Indian students who come to America with big dreams, often paying three times the tuition domestic students pay. They arrive with hope, ambition, and their families' trust - and yet, if they can't secure a job after graduation, their visa expires. Many of them become undocumented, lost in a legal limbo where they are no longer welcome, yet have nowhere else to go. Is this what they deserve?"
The disturbing viral footage shows the student pinned to the ground as at least four officials held him down, with two of them keeping their knees on his back. They had tied the student's legs and hands.
Indian Embassy's response
As the video went viral on social media, the Indian Embassy in New York addressed the incident, saying they have across social media posts claiming that an Indian national faced difficulties at the Newark Liberty International Airport.
"We are in touch with local authorities in this regard. The Consulate remains ever committed for the welfare of Indian Nationals," it said.
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