- By Surarika Das
- Fri, 17 Apr 2026 04:42 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
A 53-year-old woman named Meenu Batra, has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE) in Texas, sparking a legal scrutiny over the illegality of her custody. Batra has stayed in the US for more than 35 years and is the only licensed Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu court interpreter in Texas, helping hundreds of people in immigration court for years.
On March 17, while traveling to Milwaukee for an immigration court assignment, she was intercepted by ICE authorities at Harlingen International Airport and placed in handcuffs. She attempted to explain that she had a legitimate work visa and a valid status, but she was detained and then moved to Raymondville's El Valle detention center.
Batra described her incarceration as "bizarre" in an interview with The Guardian from behind bars. She claimed to have been "treated like a criminal" and expressed fear of deportation to a foreign country.
"It feels strange," she said to The Guardian. "I haven't been able to cry much because nothing is making sense."I'm at a loss for words. I'm just staring at the wall, wondering not only why I'm here but also why anyone else is."
After her parents were killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh rioting, Batra immigrated to the S in 1991. She has raised her four children in South Texas for nearly her entire adult life. Recently, her son joined the US Army.
Batra's California and Texas-based immigration attorney, Deepak Ahluwalia, told The Guardian that in 2000, an immigration judge gave the 53-year-old lady a "withholding of removal" to India after determining she was likely to be persecuted there.
He clarified that the government cannot transfer her to India unless it reopens her immigration case due to the "withholding of removal" decision. Ahluwalia believes that the government may send her to a third nation because the Trump administration hasn't done that.
Meenu has been in custody for a month, and they still haven't told her where they want to transfer her," Ahluwalia stated.
The US has made agreements with other nations, including as Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, South Sudan, and Rwanda, to take US deportees since Trump took office last year. An order mandating that the administration provide deportees with "meaningful notice" prior to shipping them to a foreign nation was overturned by an appeals court last month.
Batra has now challenged her imprisonment in a habeas corpus petition. She claimed in her appeal that she was first kept without food or drink for a full day and that her prescription was even refused. She further claimed that officers forced her to pose for pictures with her hands behind her back after her arrest, creating the illusion that she was still tied.
"For social media" is how they explained the pictures. "This made me feel humiliated and treated like a criminal," she replied.