Indian-origin court interpreter Meenu Batra has been released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after spending over six weeks in detention.
“We are overjoyed. It’s been a long six to seven weeks. We knew that this moment would come. We were hoping it wouldn’t take as long,” Batra’s attorney, Deepak Ahluwalia, told CBS News.
She was released from ICE custody on April 30 after a federal judge ordered her release, noting that she had not been given proper legal process before being detained.
“She was afforded no procedural protection before the government detained her, increasing the risk of an erroneous deprivation of her liberty,” said US District Court Judge Roland Olvera.
The 53-year-old, who has lived in the United States for around 35 years, was detained on March 17 at Valley International Airport in Texas while travelling for work to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Batra, a mother of four and a long-time interpreter in Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu, holds a “withholding of removal” status, which allows her to live and work in the US but does not provide a direct path to citizenship.
Following her release, her legal team says the family is now working to secure a green card to strengthen her immigration status.
Batra’s youngest son, Jasper, who serves in the US Army, will request the government to expedite his mother’s application. They are hoping it gets approved in about four to six months.
Ahluwalia says that the focus is now on ensuring Batra can remain in the US permanently, adding that her team will strongly oppose any attempt by authorities to deport her to a third country where she has no ties or connections.
“The fight is not over. We’ve gotten Meenu out, but now it’s a matter of keeping her here, making sure that all forms of relief that she is eligible for are adjudicated while she’s sitting here and fighting any attempt to send her to a third country that she has no previous relationship or no association with, and we will fight to the end to that,” Ahluwalia said.
Batra came to the US about 35 years ago, fleeing violence in India. She applied for asylum, but instead of getting full asylum, she was given “withholding of removal” in 2000, which prevents her from being deported to her home country.
Earlier, Batra told ABC News that she was handcuffed and taken into an unmarked white SUV, with at least four officers involved in her arrest. She said the officers made her feel “humiliated” and that she was “treated like a criminal”.
She described her arrest as a “sinking feeling,” and said that her detainment has felt like “the longest month of her life.”
