‘Served beef, didn’t provide medicine’: Indian-origin woman, 73, recounts treatment during ICE detention, deportation flight to India

Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old Sikh woman who was deported from the United States after being there for over 30 years, claimed that she was mistreated after she was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials earlier this month. Kaur said that she was barely given food she could eat, given that she is vegetarian, and was given no medicine.

Speaking to the media after her return to India, Kaur said, “I couldn’t even eat the food they gave because I am a vegetarian. They served beef, which I don’t eat,” PTI reported

Kaur described that she was moved to various locations in the US before she was deported to New Delhi. She is currently living at her sister’s house in Mohali.

“I was arrested on September 8, and taken to Fresno. From there, I was taken to Bakersfield, where I stayed for 8-10 days. I was then taken to Arizona, from where I was sent to Delhi in a flight that took 18 to 19 hours. From there, my brother-in-law picked me up,” she told ANI.

When asked whether she was provided food and medicines during the flight, she said that she was only given “some chips and two cookies,” adding that “They didn’t provide any medicine or anything else.”

Talking about her future, she said that she can’t do anything and that only her children can do anything about it now.

“My children over there will do something,” she said. “I cannot do anything.” When asked if she would like to return to the US, Kaur replied, “Definitely. My entire family is out there.”

Kaur was among the 132 deportees on the plane, including 15 Colombian nationals. “There were two good officers on board who did not cuff me, although the other deportees were cuffed and shackled,” she said.

What her lawyer said

According to her lawyer, Deepak Ahluwalia, she was not given an opportunity to say goodbye to her family before she was deported to India. Kaur was held at a facility briefly, where she was forced to sleep on the floor with just a blanket. “She was unable to get up as she had a double knee replacement surgery. She was also denied a shower the entire time,” Ahluwalia said.

“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.”

Kaur migrated to the US in 1992 with her two sons. Her asylum claim was denied in 2012, after which she remained under ICE supervision. According to her family, she was repeatedly told that she could stay in the US until her travel documents were arranged by Indian authorities. They added that she had “faithfully reported” to ICE in San Francisco every six months for the last 13 years and has been paying taxes.