Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old San Francisco Bay Area grandmother who has lived in the United States for three decades, was unexpectedly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week during a routine check-in, according to her attorney.
Her detention, which her attorney said came after she had complied with immigration officials for more than a decade, has sparked protests from those in her community. Last Friday, days after she was detained, around 200 people gathered in El Sobrante to call for her release, carrying signs that read “Hands off our grandma” and “She’s no criminal.” Kaur has two children and five grandchildren.
Deepak Ahluwalia, who is representing Kaur, told NBC News that Kaur has lived in the United States since 1992 and has no criminal record. After her asylum case was denied in 2007, she appealed up to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but her final appeal was denied “sometime in 2012 or 2013,” Ahluwalia said. Since then, she had checked in with ICE every six months for 13 years. Because she was repeatedly checking in with ICE while under a final order of removal, she received legal authorization allowing her to work, he added.
The Trump administration has pushed to increase immigration enforcement around the country, following up on President Donald Trump’s promise to conduct the largest mass deportation in American history. ICE has increasingly been arresting immigrants appearing for routine check-ins and court hearings. In recent months, immigration authorities have particularly targeted so-called sanctuary cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Washington. While the stated intent has been to target “the worst of the worst,” according to Department of Homeland Security officials, many without criminal records have also been swept up in the actions.
Kaur was detained Sept. 8 at an ICE facility in San Francisco, transferred to an office in Fresno hours later and then taken in handcuffs to a detention center in Bakersfield, where she arrived at 3 a.m. the next day, her attorney said.
“When she was brought to Fresno ... she was again held in a cell and no bed, no seat, nothing. There was a toilet in there, no toilet paper. She asked for water to have a drink of water, and she was explicitly told ‘no more water,’” Ahluwalia said.
According to Ahluwalia, Kaur, a strict vegetarian, did not receive an appropriate vegetarian meal until six days after she arrived in Bakersfield, and up until then was given meals that had meat. He said that she has been given only one of her prescribed medications even though ICE has a full list of five or six other medications and that, although she has repeatedly requested medical care, she has yet to see a doctor or a nurse. She has had double knee replacement surgery and suffers from health issues, including thyroid problems and migraines, he added.
An ICE spokesperson told NBC News in a statement (that misspelled Kaur’s last name): “Harjit Kauer has exhausted decades of due process. She is an illegal alien who has litigated her case since 1991, over 34 years now. She was ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2005 — over 20 years ago — and she didn’t leave. Kauer has filed multiple appeals all the way up to the 9th Circuit Court of appeals and LOST each time. Now that she has exhausted all legal remedies, ICE is enforcing U.S. law and the orders by the judge; she will not waste any more U.S. tax dollars.”
Ahluwalia said the dates ICE stated for her litigation and removal order were “not accurate.”
ICE did not respond to a request for comment on Ahluwalia’s claims of how Kaur was treated or whether ICE ever made a formal request to procure travel documents for her to return to India.
Ahluwalia added that Kaur was OK with returning to India to comply with the final order of removal. ICE told her it did not have travel documents for her return.
Her attorney laid out two paths forward: He could challenge her detention with a habeas corpus petition, which could take months to resolve, or he could urge the Indian Consulate to issue travel documents to Kaur so she could be released from ICE custody to travel to India — the option he said he is pursuing now.
The Indian Consulate General in San Francisco did not reply to a request for comment.
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., who represents the district Kaur lives in, objected to Kaur’s detention in a statement.
“President Trump initially promised to go after the ‘worst of the worst’ in his immigration policy,” he said. “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. Our office will do everything possible to support her case and her family.”
Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Calif., said she echoed Garamendi’s “calls for ICE to release Ms. Kaur and will continue to call for her secure release.”
Kaur worked as a seamstress at Sari Palace, an Indian clothing boutique in Berkeley, for over 20 years, becoming the primary tailor for many in her community, said Heeral Mehta, whose father ran the store. Mehta said the impact of Kaur’s detention has been “devastating.”
“Everyone has a connection to her. ... It’s crazy, right, because it’s like thinking of someone who made you so happy for one of the best days of your life is now going through this,” Mehta said, referring to the bridal gowns Kaur stitched.
During one of the few phone calls she has been able to make from detention, Kaur told Mehta she was grateful for the support and became emotional.
“She was just really thankful that we were all trying to help so much, but ... she was crying for most of the time I was talking to her,” Mehta said. “She’s OK with any outcome as long as she can get out of there ... meaning going back to India.”
She added: “Some days she feels very defeated.”