Bibi Harjit Kaur, 73-year-old Sikh woman, deported from the US amid protests over her treatment and immigration enforcement (Photo: X | @Gagandeep Singh)
Bibi Harjit Kaur is a 73 year-old Sikh woman who had lived in California for over three decades, was suddenly deported to India in a clandestine operation that left her family and legal representatives in shock.
Despite her cooperation for many years with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and she was removed from the country without prior notice to bid adieu to her loved ones, companions of many years, or even to consult her attorney.
This incident raises a significant concern about the amount of human suffering rendered by immigration enforcement measures and the treatment of aged detainees.
Bibi Harjit Kaur entered the United States in 1991 with her two young sons following the death of her husband. In Shunning Punjab, India, for safety and stability amid political turmoil and she settled in the San Francisco Bay Area with a steady but simple life, she worked for over twenty years in a sari shop as a seamstress.
Harjit Kaur spent her life working and raising children and then grandchildren with five grandchildren being U.S. citizens. While she illegally resided in the country, she worked, paid taxes and supported her application for asylum to be able to legitimatize her status in America, a country she had called home for over three decades.
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Harjit Kaur’s painful saga through the U.S. immigration system was long and she filed various asylum appeals which were denied, the last one being in 2012. After the denials, she cooperated fully with ICE requirements, reporting every six months. According to her lawyer, Deepak Ahluwalia she never attempted to evade the authorities but was merely snagged in a bureaucratic limbo.
For the next 13 years, ICE encountered many hurdles in procuring the travel documents needed from the Indian government to carry out her deportation an exercise aggravated by lack of cooperation from them and missing documentation. The validity of Ms. Kaur's work authorization was reestablished over this period, exemplifying that she had been legally working.
On September 8, 2024, Harjit Kaur was arrested and detained at the routine check-in in San Francisco. She was subjected to detention under the horrendous conditions, at some instances being deprived of basic necessities such as medication, food and comfortable seating owing to her old age and health conditions.
Without any notice to her family or any warning to her attorney, Harjit Kaur was shuttled across the country to Georgia and then flown straight to India on September 19. The family realized she had been airplaned out of the country and away from their sight, unavailable to bid farewell, hitting them with shock and grief.
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The treatment toward Bibi Harjit Kaur instigated the protests among Sikh communities and shedding light on the hidden painful human aspects of immigration enforcement. The Advocate condemned ICE's actions as inhumane and abhorrent to basic human rights.
The Local leaders and politicians demanded accountability, arguing that people like Harjit Kaur without any criminal record and who had been well-rooted in the community should not be viewed as threats. The saga has interventions into the emotional and physical drain exerted on elderly immigrants left in legal limbo.
The deportation of Harjit Kaur signals a bleak perspective into the controversies and intricacies that engulf U.S. immigration policy while ICE contends that she has exhausted all avenues for relief and others campaign for reform that stresses humanity for those in vulnerable circumstances.
Her story raises pertinent questions about the intersection between law and compassion and whether we need a system that will satisfy legal standards with dignity. As protests ensue and conversations evolve, the legacy of Bibi Harjit Kaur will invoke changes in the way immigrant communities are treated at their most desperate hours.
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Disclaimer: This article is based on available information at the time of writing and aims to present facts without bias. Views expressed are for informational purposes only.
