Deported Sikh grandmother calls behaviour of immigration officials ‘very bad’

Sharing the heart wrenching ordeal of her time in detention in the US awaiting deportation to India, 73-year-old Harjit Kaur has termed the behaviour of immigration officials “very bad”.

 “Their behaviour was very bad. I was arrested on 8 September… I was arrested and taken to Bakersfield, where I stayed for 8-10 days. I was then taken to Arizona, from where I was sent to Delhi… My children over there will do something. I cannot do anything,” she told ANI.

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Kaur was deported to India on Tuesday after being detained by immigration authorities in California as part of the US government’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

Her deportation has sparked widespread outrage and sympathy. Kaur, who lived in California for more than three decades, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on September 8 during a routine check-in and deported to India.

A mother of two and grandmother of five, she lived in the United States since 1992, working at a garment store in Berkeley to support herself and her family. Despite having no criminal record, she had been considered “undocumented” after multiple failed asylum applications, the last of which was rejected in 2012. Following the rejection, she was asked to report to immigration authorities every six months, a condition she consistently fulfilled for more than a decade.

Despite her compliance to all the conditions, she was detained.  According to her attorney, Deepak Ahluwalia, Kaur was detained in San Francisco during a scheduled check-in. She was taken in handcuffs to a detention center in Bakersfield, arriving at 3 a.m. the following day. Ahluwalia alleged that during her brief detention, Kaur was confined in a cell without a bed or chair, with only a toilet and no toilet paper, and was allegedly denied water when she requested it.

News of her deportation without even saying having said goodbye to her children and other family members has provoked protests and outpouring of emotions across the Sikh community in California and elsewhere. Last Friday, around 200 people gathered in El Sobrante, carrying placards reading “Hands off our grandma” and “She’s no criminal.”

Despite her multiple appeals, including to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals after her 2007 case denial, she faced deportation, leaving her family across the world in shock and grief.

Condemning her deportation and alleged inhumane treatment, SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal urged the Union External Affairs Minister  S Jaishankar to engage with the US government to safeguard the rights of deportees.