Overview
- Meenu Batra, who was freed Thursday under a temporary restraining order, won a judge’s finding that she had no notice or chance to respond before ICE jailed her and cannot be re-detained without those protections.
- ICE agents stopped the 53-year-old at Harlingen’s Valley International Airport on March 17 while she traveled for a work assignment, and she spent more than six weeks at the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville.
- Batra has lived in the United States for about 35 years and holds withholding of removal from 2000, a protection that blocks deportation to India but does not create a path to a green card.
- Her legal team plans to seek permanent residency by asking the government to expedite a green card application through her son who serves in the U.S. Army.
- DHS and ICE say she remains subject to a final deportation order, reflecting a broader clash between enforcement of old orders and humanitarian protections that could affect others with similar status.