73-year-old 'undocumented' Sikh woman deported from US after 33 years

Chandigarh: A 73-year old "undocumented" Sikh woman, who lived in the US for more than 30 years, was deported to India earlier this week after being detained by immigration authorities in California without being given the chance to even say goodbye to her relatives, her advocate said.

In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Deepak Ahluwalia, the advocate, said, “Bibi ji (Harjit Kaur) is on her way back to Punjab. She has already landed in India.” Kaur was detained by immigration authorities in California after she went for a routine check, triggering protests and concerns among her family and community members.

Kaur, a resident of East Bay in northern California for more than 30 years, was detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during a routine check, a report in Berkeleyside, a nonprofit news portal, said earlier.

Her family along with hundreds of community members organised a protest, demanding the immediate release of Kaur, who was detained after the ICE officials asked her to come to its San Francisco office for additional paperwork.

She was then taken to a detention centre in Bakersfield, Ahluwalia said.

In the post, Ahluwalia claimed Kaur was taken from Bakersfield to Los Angeles where she was put on a flight to Georgia and thereafter to New Delhi.

He also claimed that Kaur's family members urged the authorities to give her a chance to say final goodbye to her relatives before she was sent back, but permission was denied.

“We were able to get her travel documents. We were trying to negotiate with the ICE attorney and the government for her to depart on a commercial flight. We booked a ticket for Monday. We also asked the authorities to release her for 24-48 hours, even under ankle monitoring, to give her a chance to say final goodbye," Ahluwalia said.

“But around 2 am on Saturday, they took her from Bakersfield, drove her to Los Angeles in handcuffs, and put her on a flight to Georgia without even notifying the attorney, or giving any prior notice,” Ahluwalia claimed.

In Georgia, Kaur was kept at a temporary facility for detainees, he said.

“She was not even given a bed for nearly 60-70 hours, and made to sleep on the floor with a blanket. She was unable to get up as she had a double knee replacement surgery,” Ahluwalia said.

“She was also denied a shower the entire time. Prior to the flight on Monday, she and some other detainees were given wet wipes and told to just clean up before boarding the plane from Georgia to Armenia. From Armenia, she came to Delhi on an ICE chartered plane,” he said.

“Thankfully, they did not cuff her, a process followed earlier. One officer was apparently trying to cuff her but another said to avoid the process considering her age,” Ahluwalia said.

Kaur was reportedly undocumented, according to an earlier report in ABC7News.

She reached the US in 1992 as a single mother with two sons. Her asylum case was denied in 2012, but since then she "faithfully reported" to the ICE in San Francisco every six months for more than 13 years, her daughter-in-law Manji Kaur earlier said.

The Berkeleyside report claimed the “ICE assured her that she could remain in the United States under supervision with a work permit until her travel documents were received”.

Following her detention, there were protests in California with demonstrators demanding her release with placards reading “Hands off our grandma” and “Bring grandma home”.

Kaur, who has two grandsons and three granddaughters in the US, among other relatives, worked at an Indian garment store for more than two decades, the report said.

One of her granddaughters, Sukhdeep Kaur, described Harjit Kaur as an “independent, selfless, and hardworking woman”, who was like a “mother figure” (to the community).

The family members also voiced concern over her health, claiming that placing a woman of her age with serious health issues such as thyroid, migraine, knee pain and anxiety under detention could put her life at risk.