Indian Interpreter Living in US Since 1991 Arrested by ICE, Facing Potential Third-Country Deportation

Meenu Batra was never once called at the ICE office in the last 26 years, her attorney Deepak Ahluwalia said. As the Department of Homeland Security calls Meenu Batra an illegal alien from India, her attorney Deepak Ahluwalia said no due process was followed in the arrest of Batra, a legal interpreter, who has been working in the US since 1992. In an interview with the CNN, Ahluwalia said Meenu Batra was never asked to appear at any ICE office in the last 26 years and all of a sudden without any prior notice, she was arrested at an airport when she was traveling for work. The DHS said Batra came to the US illegally at an unknown date and location and she was served a final order of removal in 2000. Ahluwalia said Batra was granted a withholding of removal which meant she could not be deported to India. But the Trump 2.0, Ahluwalia said, found a loophole that if an individual can not be removed to their home country, they could be deported to a third country. But the administration has not disclosed what they are planning to do further as they arrest first and plan later. Ahluwalia explained that when a person is granted this status that can't be removed to the country from where they came, they can live in the US unless the DHS files a case at the same court that granted the relief to reopen the case. This happens only when there is a felony case against the individual. Another possibility is that DHS appeals for reopening the case citing a changed condition in the said country. But the DHS did not follow these due processes in Meenu Batra's case. Ahluwalia said the administration is doing this in several cases where they are attempting to remove people to a third country. The attorney said that the DHS can't send Batra to India but they did not decide where they are planning to send her. 53-year-old Meenu Batra came to the US in 1991 after her parents were killed in India. She spent most of her life in the US, got married, gave birth to four children as she continued to work as an interpreter as she knows Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and English. She was arrested on March 17 at Harlingen International Airport and has been in the ICE custody since then.