As a courtroom interpreter in Texas’ immigration system, it was Meenu Batra’s job to make sure migrants understood the proceedings of immigration court – the good and the bad.
In March, Batra was exposed to the other side of the immigration system when she was detained by the Department of Homeland Security after decades spent living and working in the United States.
Batra, a mother of four US citizens who transitioned to interpreting in other courtrooms after years spent in immigration court, was detained for more than six weeks – a harrowing experience from which she says she’s still recovering.
She came to the US in 1991, she said, a fragile 18-year-old traumatized by the killing of her parents in a spate of anti-Sikh violence in India. She rejoined her older siblings who were already in the US and applied for asylum.
Batra declined to give details about how she entered the US but was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2000, under President Bill Clinton, according to DHS, her attorney and a judge’s ruling in her current case. But the same day, she was granted withholding of removal, a legal protection similar to asylum that says she cannot be deported to India. The government never appealed that decision, and she was released and spent the last 25 years without any formal interactions with immigration authorities, she says.
That’s until March 17, when she was detained at an airport while on her way to interpret Punjabi for a trial in Milwaukee.
DHS called Batra an “illegal alien” and said she was arrested during a “targeted enforcement operation.”
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In the days after she was detained, Batra called her adult daughter – a challenging reversal of her usual role as a single mom who prided herself on providing support and stability for her children – who quickly hired an immigration lawyer to fight for her mother’s release. The legal team filed on March 26 a petition for habeas corpus, a form of relief whose use has skyrocketed in immigration cases since Trump took office again.
Federal judge Rolando Olvera granted Batra’s request for a temporary restraining order on April 30, ordering DHS to release her and not detain her again “until they have provided her with notice of the reasons for re-detention and an opportunity to respond.”
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The post This Interpreter Helped Migrants Navigate Immigration Court. Then She Was Detained by DHS appeared first on American Renaissance.
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