Kamal Ghorui
Meenu Batra’s lawyer Deepak Ahluwalia spoke about what’s next for their legal fight after Batra was released from ICE detention after six weeks.
Indian-origin Meenu Batra, who was detained by the ICE for being an undocumented individual in the US living since 1991, is still not in the clear after she was released from six-week ICE detention, his attorney Deepak Ahluwalia said in an interview. The release was a victory and now she can’t be detained again without notice, but they are now pushing for a military parole for her, as her son is in the US Army, so that Batra can get a Green Card.Ahluwalia said the detention was absolutely unnecessary as Batra had been living in the US for 35 years, paying taxes and working as a legal interpreter for courts. She was never called by the ICE or given no inkling but was cornered by ICE agents when she was on a work trip like she was some cartel member. Batra could not be deported to India as there was an earlier court order to this effect and the administration was planning to send her to a third country. Ahluwalia said no name of a third country came up during the six weks of detention from the side of the administration as they had no plan.They arrested Meeny Batra first and did not know what to do, the attorney said adding that the ICE has been pushing for increasing their number of arrests as they have a quota to fulfil. And putting people in detention centers brings profit to corporations running these centers as well, explaining the complex system running on gross miscarriage of justice.Ahluwalia said Meenu Batra is eligible for a military parole as a family member of an Army soldier. And if they can get that, they will be filing for a Green Card for Meenu.Speaking about his conversation with Batra after she was released, Ahluwalia said Batra considered herself as an emotionally strong person as she fled Sikh genocide in India, but this ICE arrest shook her to the core.Ahluwalia said Meenu Batra’s detention had a racism factor too, to instil fear in other immigrants as well.Meenu Batra came to the US in 1991 after her parents were killed in Punjab. She did not enter the country legally but in 2000, she obtained a legal status known as ‘suspension of removal’ that prevented her from being sent back to India for fear of persecution.
