Sikh grandmother deported to India after ‘unacceptable’ treatment by US immigration authorities
Harjit Kaur, who spent more than three decades in the United States, was deported after asylum claims were denied; her lawyer described detention conditions as unacceptable and sparked community protests in California.
Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old grandmother who had lived in the United States for more than 30 years, was deported to India on Sept. 22 after her asylum requests were rejected. Authorities arrested the Punjab-born grandmother on Sept. 8 in San Francisco during a routine check-in, marking the end of a decades-long attempt to remain in the United States.
Ms. Kaur moved to California in 1991 with her two young sons to escape political turmoil in Punjab. She settled in Hercules, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she worked as a sari-store seamstress for about two decades and paid taxes. Asylum seekers are generally allowed to live and work legally while their claims are processed, and Ms. Kaur continued to stay and work in the United States after her initial appeals were denied because she lacked documents to return to India. She was told to report to immigration authorities every six months, a routine that she fulfilled until her arrest.
Her detention and deportation followed a rapid sequence: she was moved to a holding facility in Georgia on Sept. 19 and deported three days later, never getting a chance to visit her U.S. home or bid a proper farewell to family. Her lawyer, Deepak Ahluwalia, has alleged that Ms. Kaur, who has no criminal record, was treated in an “unacceptable” manner during detention. In an Instagram video, he described her as spending 60–70 hours in detention without a bed and being forced to sleep on the floor despite double knee replacements. He further alleged she was given ice to take medication and denied food she could eat, with guards blaming her for not eating the provided sandwich.
The BBC confirmed it had reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment, but had not yet received a response. Ms. Kaur’s arrest and deportation have sparked shock and anger within the Sikh community, with protests organizing in California to condemn the treatment and to call for broader scrutiny of immigration enforcement practices.
After landing in Delhi on Thursday, Ms. Kaur told the Times of India that after so many years in the United States, being detained and deported in this way felt unbearable: “After living for so long (in the US), you are suddenly detained and deported this way; it is better to die than to face this.” Her case sits within a broader U.S. policy debate over how to handle large volumes of asylum applications and non-criminal migrants amid a crackdown under the current administration. Estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers arrive at U.S. borders annually, with more than 3.7 million asylum cases currently pending in immigration courts, underscoring the ongoing pressures and legal complexities of the system.
Advocates say the focus has shifted toward rapid removal and stricter enforcement, while critics argue that individuals with no criminal history and whose claims involve credible fears may still become ensnared in a lengthy and opaque process. The deportation of Ms. Kaur, who lived and contributed to her community for decades, has intensified calls for due process protections and humane treatment of detainees in immigration proceedings. The case also highlights the human dimension of a policy debate that spans national security, humanitarian considerations, and the socio-economic impact on communities with long-standing immigrant ties.
As governments and courts continue to grapple with asylum policy, Ms. Kaur’s story serves as a microcosm of the tensions at the intersection of migration, due process, and human rights within the broader World context.