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Interpreter Meenu Batra held by ICE, files illegal detention claim
Batra is currently placed at the El Valle Detention Center and DHS has until April 21 to respond to her petition.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Thu, 16, Apr 2026
- 03:08 EDT
- 39
Meenu Batra / Indus Lingo
Indian-origin single mother of four, 53-year-old Meenu Batra, was taken into ICE custody from South Texas on March 17.
Batra, a court interpreter for over 20 years, the only one licensed in Texas for Hindi, Punjabi, or Urdu, was picked up from the Harlingen airport as she was flying to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to work another case, reported Texas Observer.
Batra claims that the people who arrested her did not have visible badges nor were they wearing uniforms, in a sworn deposition that she filed along with her demand to be released based on the claim that the detention was illegal.
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She accused the officers of informing her that she was in the country illegally and there was a deportation order issued against her and then persisting with the arrest even after being informed by her that her work authorization status was valid for another four years.
Batra also informed the agents that the deportation order was offset by the ‘withholding of removal’ order by a New Jersey immigration judge decades ago.
Withholding of removal is a form of relief from deportation granted by an immigration judge, preventing return to a country where a person's life or freedom would be threatened.
“Having watched and read enough news, I know that the moment you say something, they accuse you of evading arrest or whatever other things,” Batra told the Texas Observer.
She continued, “So, being mindful of all that, mindful of the whole line and being embarrassed in front of everybody, I just complied.”
Batra’s ‘withholding of removal’ status ensures that she cannot be deported back to India but provides for deportation to a “third country” that will accept such a person.
The Trump administration currently has tie-ups with 27 countries which it has paid up to $1 million per deportation to accept deportees.
Batra is currently placed at the El Valle Detention Center outside of Raymondville where she remains without access to the consistent medical care that she needs following surgeries she had in December.
DHS has until April 21 to respond to Batra’s petition.
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