Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old with no criminal record, said she was only given ice to take her medications and was denied meals in accordance with her religious beliefs.
by Jana Kadah Sept. 26, 2025 (Oaklandside.org)
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This article was originally published by Richmondside.
Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old East Bay woman who was detained for 15 days by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a routine check-in was deported to her home country of India this week. She had been living and working legally in the United States for more than three decades and had no criminal history.
Kaur, who came to the Bay Area as a single mother in 1991, lived in Hercules, regularly attended the El Sobrante Sikh Gurdwara and worked for two decades as a seamstress at Sari Palace in Berkeley.
Kaur, a grandmother of five, was denied asylum and tried to appeal several times. When her appeal was denied at the federal appeals court, she was willing to self deport but in 13 years was never given travel documents from the Indian Consulate, her family said.
Every roughly six months, Kaur “faithfully” visited the ICE field office in San Francisco to check in, her family said. Her work permit was renewed annually while ICE officials tried to secure the documents she needed to go to India.
So, on Sept. 8, her arrest at one of those check-ins shocked her family and the wider community, which held a rally on Sept. 12 in El Sobrante to show their support for her.
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On Sept. 9, Kaur was taken to the Mesa Verde Detention Facility in Bakersfield. She was then moved to a detention center in Lumpkin, GA., on Sept. 20 and ultimately deported without any notice on Monday.
“Around 2 a.m., without notifying the attorney, without any advance notice to anybody, [ICE] took her from Bakersfield, drove her to LA while in handcuffs yet again, and put her on a flight to Georgia,” her Fresno-based attorney Deepak Ahluwalia said in a video he shared on social media.
Ahluwalia said at one point no one knew her location for more than 24 hours. She was able to call her family Sunday.
“I’ve been to Lumpkin, and it’s as remote as remote can be,” Ahluwalia said, referring to Kaur as “Bibiji,” a Punjabi term of respect. “And (when) she had called us, she was not able to tell us herself where she actually was.”
Denied toilet paper, slept on the floor
What Kaur did share was that she was held in cells without a bed or a chair for hours and made to sleep on the floor. She was refused vegetarian meals in accordance with her religious beliefs — she is Sikh — during the first six days of detention and was only provided with her medicine several days into detention.
“When she asked to have [food] or even water to take with her medication, she was given a plate of ice,” Ahluwalia said. “She explained she had dentures and she couldn’t eat it. The guard told her, ‘That’s your fault.’ ”
Ahluwalia noted that two individuals tried to meet Kaur at the detention center on Sunday when they learned where she was, but ICE denied the visit.
Kaur also wasn’t given access to basic hygiene supplies such as toilet paper and wasn’t allowed to shower. When she was about to board her ICE chartered flight to India on Mondays he was given wet wipes to clean herself, Ahluwalia said.
He said the family was willing to comply with the deportation but only had two requests: Kaur be released (with an ankle monitor) for 24 to 48 hours to tie up any loose ends and/or that she be allowed to fly on a commercial plane and be accompanied by a member of her family due to her age and medical conditions.
Her family even purchased a plane ticket to India for her while she was detained in Bakersfield, Ahluwalia said, but those requests went ignored. He said ICE eventually responded to his multiple requests, saying the family could visit her on Tuesday — the day after she was deported.
The attorney also noted that he is filing a complaint regarding the conditions of Kaur’s detention.
“Some might call (what I’m saying to be) ICE bashing. Some might call it, you know, obviously speaking out. But at the end of the day, I’m speaking facts,” Aluwalia said. “I’m telling you, matter of fact, what took place.”
ICE claims Kaur a “waste” of tax dollars
In an emailed statement to Richmondside, which misspelled her name and called her an illegal alien, an ICE official said Kaur litigated her case for more than 34 years and was ordered to leave the country an immigration judge in 2005, so “to say her arrest by ICE is somehow unjust or lacking in due process is absurd.”
Kaur “filed multiple appeals all the way up to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and LOST each time,” the statement says. “Now that she has exhausted all legal remedies, ICE is stepping in to enforce the law and orders by the judge; she will not waste any more U.S. tax dollars.”
Ahluwalia pushed back on the notion of Kaur wasting tax dollars.
“This is how a 73-year-old grandmother was treated with no criminal record … she worked, she contributed to the U.S. taxpayer system and didn’t live off social security or any other sort of benefits,” Ahluwalia emphasized. “And everyone can keep saying she had a final order removal and she was asked to leave. Correct — she was asked to leave, and she was complying.”
Kaur’s case drew attention due to her particular circumstance, but she is one of thousands who have been detained by ICE this year alone.
As of Sept. 7, ICE held 58,766 individuals in detention facilities, according to TRAC reports. Of those currently detained, 70.8% do not have a criminal conviction. Many of those who do were convicted of minor offenses, including traffic violations.
The number of ICE detentions and deportations have skyrocketed since President Donald Trump’s reelection. The president has repeatedly said he wants to crackdown on illegal immigration, focusing on getting rid of criminals, and has increased ICE’s budget — making it the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency.
But data from the Cato Institute found that more than 93% of detainees from the 2025 fiscal year (October 2024 to June 2025) were not convicted of any violent offenses. And of the 204,297 people detained by ICE in that period, 65% had no convictions at all. Most convictions fell into three main categories: immigration, traffic, or nonviolent vice crimes.
Kaur’s granddaughter Sukhmeet Sandhu took to social media this week to thank everyone “from the bottom of my heart for standing with us.” She said her grandmother’s detention was very difficult for the family and her safe deportation was only possible because of the advocacy from the community.
“While we are thankful for her safe return, it’s important to remember the many other innocent individuals who remain detained for months or even years,” Sukhmeet Kaur wrote. “Please continue to raise your voices and fight for them the same way you stood with our grandmother.”
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JANA KADAH
Jana Kadah covers Richmond schools and youth issues, Contra Costa College, the county Board of Education and other general topics for Richmondside.More by Jana Kadah
