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73-year-old Indian woman who has been in US for 33 years detained by ICE
Following her sudden detention, her family along with hundreds of members from the community organised a protest Friday, calling for the immediate release.
The detention of a 73-year-old Sikh woman in the US has sparked outrage across the the community. Harjit Kaur, who has been in the United States for the last 30 years was detained by ICE officials after a routine check-in earlier this week.
As per a report by Berkeleyside, a nonprofit news portal, Kaur lived in the East Bay region in Northern California for more than 30 years. The Sikh woman was detained on Monday after ICE officials asked her to come to San Francisco to turn in additional paperwork regarding her stay in the country.
Following her sudden detention, her family along with hundreds of members from the community organised a protest Friday, calling for the immediate release.
As per the nonprofit report, the woman was “taken to a detention centre in Bakersfield."
Detention despite regular check-ins
As per ABC7News, Kaur was an undocumented immigrant in the US. However, this was due to her asylum case being denied. Kaur came to the United States in 1992 from India as a single mother with two sons.
In 2012, the US denied her asylum, but since then the woman has “faithfully reported” to ICE in San Francisco every six months for more than 13 years, her daughter-in-law Manji Kaur told the US-based news channel.
“ICE assured her she could remain in the United States under supervision with work permits until they could receive her travel documents," the report added.
Kaur had worked for over two decades at a local Indian clothing store, the report added.
Outrage among community
Following her detention, her family has voiced concern over her health, claiming that being detained at her age with serious health issues such as thyroid disease, migraine, knee pain, and anxiety, her life could be at risk.
"It's been a total nightmare to find out she's been detained. We didn't expect it. She's been doing ICE check-ins for 13 years," Manjit Kaur, her daughter-in-law, told ABCNews7
"They just said we are detaining your grandma and didn't give me any other information, didn't let me see her. And after that, we didn't hear from her for hours and when we did hear from her, she was crying and begging us for help," her granddaughter, Sukhmeet Sandhu, told the news outlet.
Along with Kaur’s family, members of the Indivisible West Contra Costa County, the Sikh Centre, Rep John Garamendi’s staff, local elected officials and other political leaders also attended the protest calling for the 73-year-old's release.
As per KTVU Fox 2 news portal, Congressman Garamendi has sent an inquiry to ICE requesting that Kaur be reunited with her family.
“President (Donald) Trump initially promised to go after the ‘worst of the worst’ in his immigration policy. Yet this administration’s decision to detain a 73-year-old woman — a respected member of the community with no criminal record who has faithfully reported to ICE every six months for more than 13 years — is one more example of the misplaced priorities of Trump’s immigration enforcement," read the statement issued by Garamendi's office.
“Our office will do everything possible to support her case and her family,” he added.
Local Council member Dilli Bhattarai, as per to the Berkeleyside report, is actively looking into how his city can put pressure on the federal government to release Kaur.
“She is not doing any harm to the community. She is an abiding [constituent] just like us. She has all the rights to be here as a community member and we should all support her immediate release," said Bhattarai.
(with inputs from PTI)
