Welcome to Arrest Stories. A seventy-three-year-old grandmother from El Sobrante was detained by immigration officials during what should have been a routine check-in appointment in San Francisco on September eighth. Here's what may have happened.
Harjit Kaur arrived at her scheduled immigration appointment that Tuesday morning, just as she had done faithfully every six months for over thirteen years. The widowed grandmother, who came to the United States in nineteen ninety-one fleeing political unrest in Punjab with her two young sons, never expected this routine visit would end with her detention.
According to family members, Kaur had been working as a seamstress at a sari store in Berkeley for the past two decades, living quietly in the Bay Area community. Despite her asylum request being denied in twenty twelve, she continued reporting to ICE officials without fail, never missing a single appointment over more than a decade.
"They just said we are detaining your grandma and didn't give me any other information, didn't let me see her," a family member told reporters. The family described the hours of uncertainty that followed, saying "when we did hear from her, she was crying and begging us for help."
Kaur was transferred to the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield the day after her detention. From the facility, the distraught grandmother reportedly said, "I would rather die than be in this facility. May God just take me now."
Her family maintains that Kaur has been unable to obtain travel documents to India for over a decade, despite their willingness to comply with deportation orders. "She even packed her suitcases back in twenty twelve," one supporter noted, adding "Provide us the travel documents and she is ready to go."
The arrest has sparked community outrage, with advocates pointing out that "over seventy percent of people arrested by ICE have no criminal conviction."
All suspects presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Do not take this report as factual, always verify facts. Thanks for watching Arrest Stories.