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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A longtime immigration court interpreter has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Meenu Batra, 53, an interpreter from India who has lived in the United States for roughly 35 years, was detained while traveling through a South Texas airport, according the Texas Observer which first reported the arrest.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Newsweek, “On March 17, ICE arrested Meenu Batra, an illegal alien from India, during a targeted enforcement operation. Meenu was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge in 2000. She first entered the country illegally at an unknown date and location. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal and will receive full due process.
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“Employment authorization does NOT confer any type of legal status in the United States."
Batra was taken into custody at Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas, CBS News reports. She was traveling to Wisconsin for a legal assignment when she was detained after passing through airport security, the outlet reported.
Batra works as a freelance interpreter in immigration courts, translating proceedings involving Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu speakers, according to CBS News.
CBS News reported that her youngest son, Jasper Batra, joined the U.S. Army just months before the arrest of his mother.
"I thought, you know, I would serve my country and serve my people," Jasper Batra told CBS News. "But I didn't know the people was everyone except my mom. I thought she was included, but I guess not."
“This is someone who maybe had one speeding ticket in the last 30 years and [is] being treated like a notorious criminal,” Deepak Ahluwalia, an attorney representing Batra, told the Texas Observer.
Newsweek contacted an attorney for Batra via email on Thursday.
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Why It Matters
President Donald Trump has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. Immigrants residing in the country illegally and legally, with valid documentation such as green cards and visas, have been detained.
What To Know
Federal agents told Batra that she was subject to a prior removal order, according to the Texas Observer. Batra said the individuals who detained her were not in uniform and did not display visible badges, per the report. She said one of the agents asked whether she knew she was in the United States without legal status and whether she had a deportation order, the outlet reported.
Batra responded that she had valid work authorization, which she said she has regularly renewed since being granted “withholding of removal” by an immigration judge in New Jersey decades earlier, and that her authorization remained valid for several more years, according to the Texas Observer.
“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. “So, being mindful of all that, mindful of the whole line and being embarrassed in front of everybody, I just complied.”
Barta's parents were killed when she was a teenager in violence connected to their Sikh religion, and she fled to the United States roughly 35 years ago, according to CBS News.
She later applied for asylum in the United States and, in 2000, was granted “withholding of removal,” a form of immigration protection that differs from asylum but protects individuals from being deported to countries where they are more likely to face persecution.
Those with the status cannot be sent back to their home country but may be deported to third countries willing to accept them under U.S. agreements with other nations.
"I am here, and I am legal and will not be removed, so I have nothing to worry about," Batra said. "And I can live and I can work. And that is all I wanted to do."
Batra is currently detained at the El Valle detention center in Raymondville, Texas, according to the ICE detainee database.
Update 4/16/26, 11:40 a.m. ET: A statement from Department of Homeland Security was added.
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