Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old Indian woman who spent more than three decades in the United States, has been deported to India, sparking outrage among the Sikh community.

Ms. Kaur moved to California in 1991 with her two young sons to escape political unrest in Punjab. She lived and worked in the US while making several unsuccessful attempts to seek asylum.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested her on September 8 after her asylum applications were rejected. She was transferred to a holding facility in Georgia on September 19 and deported to India on September 22 without being able to visit her US home or say proper goodbye to family and friends, according to her lawyer Deepak Ahluwalia.

Ahluwalia said Ms. Kaur, who has no criminal record, was treated poorly during detention. “She spent 60-70 hours in a detention cell without a bed, forced to sleep on the floor despite double knee replacements. She was given ice to take her medicines and denied food she could eat,” he said.

ICE said in a statement that Ms. Kaur had “exhausted decades of due process” and that an immigration judge had ordered her removal in 2005. ICE added that she had filed multiple appeals, all of which were rejected, and that it was now enforcing US law.

Ms. Kaur lived in Hercules, San Francisco Bay Area, and worked for 20 years as a sari-store seamstress while paying taxes. Asylum applicants are allowed to work legally while their claims are processed.

After landing in Delhi, she told Times of India, “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 arrest had triggered protests and anger in the Sikh community in California. The deportation comes amid a broader US crackdown on immigration under the Trump administration, which has targeted both alleged illegal immigrants and others whose appeals were rejected.

Source: BBC