Meenu Batra’s lawyer Deepak Ahluwalia talks about what’s next for Batra’s legal fight after Batra is released from ICE custody after six weeks.

Indian-origin Meenu Batra, who was detained by ICE for living in the US as an undocumented person since 1991, remains untraced even after being released from six weeks of ICE custody, her lawyer Deepak Ahluwalia said in an interview. The release was a victory and he can no longer be detained again without notice, but they are now pushing for military parole for him, since his son is in the US Army, so that Batra can get a green card.Ahluwalia said the detention was completely unnecessary as Batra had been living in the US for 35 years, paying taxes and working as a legal interpreter for the courts. She was never called by ICE or given any information, but while she was on a work trip she was surrounded by ICE agents as if she were a cartel member. Batra could not be sent to India because there was an earlier court order to this effect and the administration was planning to send him to a third country. Ahluwalia said that during the six-week detention, the administration did not name any third country because they had no plan.They arrested Meeni Batra first and they didn’t know what to do, the lawyer said, adding that ICE is insisting on increasing the number of their arrests because they have to meet a quota. And keeping people in detention centers also benefits the corporations that run these centers, which explains the complex system running on gross abuses of justice.Ahluwalia said Meenu Batra is eligible for military parole as a family member of an army personnel. And if they can get it, they will apply for a green card for minnows.Describing his conversation with Batra after his release, Ahluwalia said that Batra considered herself an emotionally strong person because she had fled the Sikh genocide in India, but this ICE arrest shook her to the core.Ahluwalia said racism was also a factor in Meenu Batra’s detention, which instilled fear among other immigrants.Meenu Batra came to America in 1991 after her parents were murdered in Punjab. He had not entered the country legally, but in 2000, he received a legal status known as ‘suspension of removal’, which prevented him from being deported back to India for fear of persecution.