Meenu Batra talks about her ICE detention after living in the US for 35 years.
In her first interview since being released from ICE custody after more than six weeks, Indian-origin Texas woman Meenu Batra told CBS News exclusively that she fears she could be arrested again. Batra had been living in the US since 1991 after fleeing India following the murder of her parents in Punjab. In 2000, Batra was granted court protection that he could not be deported to his native country due to fear of persecution and was allowed to work legally in the US.Batra, a single mother of four children, including an Army jawan, is working as an interpreter in the court as she knows Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi languages apart from English. While she was traveling to Wisconsin for work on March 17, she was detained by ICE agents at an airport in Texas. The Donald Trump administration said she was living in the US illegally and could be deported to a third country, not India.Earlier this month, he was released after a court questioned the legality of his detention. Speaking about his detention, Batra told CBS News that the hardest part was the dehumanization and uncertainty. Responding to Shanel Kaul’s question whether she was scared that she might be arrested again, Batra said that she was very scared that this might happen again. Batra said of life after his release, “I hate to admit it.” “I went grocery shopping the other day. It was weird. This is my own town, my own people, and yet I was constantly watching over myself,” she said. Batra’s lawyer Deepak Ahluwalia had earlier said that he was trying to get military parole for Batra and that his son is in the US Army. If he gets it, they will apply for his green card later this year.