‘Was treated as a criminal...’: 73-yr-old woman opens up on deportation shock after 30 years in US

For over three decades, Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old Sikh woman from Punjab, called California her home. She worked long hours, helped raise her grandchildren, and dutifully followed immigration rules — never imagining she would one day be escorted out of the United States in handcuffs. 

But last month, after 30 years in the country, Kaur was deported back to India, ending a chapter that began in 1992 when she moved to the US with her sons, who later became citizens through marriage. 

“At 73, they took me from the place I called home for more than 30 years — like I was a criminal,” Kaur told Humans of Bombay. “The memories of those nights in detention make my hands tremble.” 

'A routine check-in'  

Kaur’s ordeal began on September 8, during what she thought would be a routine immigration check-in at the San Francisco office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Instead, she was informed that she was under arrest. 

“My granddaughter was waiting outside,” Kaur recalled. “They let me call her once. I said, ‘Beta, go home… they’ve arrested me.’ She cried, thinking she’d done something wrong.” 

From that moment, Kaur’s life spiraled into a blur of cold detention rooms, shackles, and uncertainty. 

“There were no chairs, just a metal bench. When I asked for a pillow or blanket, I was given a dirty foil sheet. They cuffed my hands and legs when they moved me. I could barely climb into the van,” she said. 

A devout vegetarian, Kaur said she survived on chips and biscuits because the authorities only served meat. “I felt like my life didn’t matter,” she said, recalling that her first proper vegetarian meal came only on September 14. 

Years of compliance 

Kaur’s lawyer, Deepak Ahluwalia, said her deportation came despite years of compliance with ICE regulations. “She had a removal order issued back in 2005, but for more than 13 years she reported regularly, followed every protocol, and lived transparently,” Ahluwalia said. 

He described her deportation as “deeply distressing,” involving “prolonged shackling, confinement in bare concrete cells, and denial of basic amenities.” 

The family had pleaded for leniency — requesting that she be allowed to travel on a commercial flight and meet her family one last time — but those appeals were denied. 

From Bakersfield, Kaur was moved to Los Angeles, then flown to Georgia, before finally being placed on a chartered flight to New Delhi. She landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on September 23, disoriented and heartbroken. 

“I worked six days a week, cared for my grandchildren, dropped them to school, made sure they studied. They were closer to me than their parents,” she said. “When they heard I’d been taken, they were devastated. They still ask, ‘Kya karoge aap, Dadi?’” 

Human cost of deportation 

Kaur’s case has drawn attention to the emotional and humanitarian toll of deportations on long-term residents, particularly elderly immigrants who have spent decades building lives in the US. 

Although Kaur’s final asylum appeal was denied in 2012, she was allowed to stay under supervision — a status that gave her hope she might one day be granted relief. 

Now, back in Punjab, she says she feels like a stranger in the place she once left behind. 

“Everything has changed. My sons, my grandchildren — my whole life — is there,” she said quietly. “Here, I’m just starting over again, at 73.”