'Better to die than face this': 73-year-old Punjab grandma deported after 30 yrs in US
TNN | Sep 26, 2025, 01.19 PM IST
CHANDIGARH: A 73-year-old grandma, who lived in US for 30 years, "did everything right, worked, paid tax, and never missed any immigration check date" is heartbroken after being deported in cruel manner — denied access to even her medicines on flight and once handed a plate of ice as food during her detention.
"After living there for so long, you are suddenly detained and deported this way, it is better to die than to face this. In such a situation, one should not live," Harjit Kaur said with anguish. Choking up while speaking to TOI on Thursday evening, she said: "Look at my feet, they are swollen like cow dung cakes. I neither got medicine nor am I able to walk."
Also read: Harrowing 48 hours, transported to Georgia in handcuffs
Kaur landed in New Delhi on Thursday afternoon and was on her way to her sister's house in Mohali when she narrated her ordeal to TOI. A native of Pangota village in Tarn Taran district of Punjab, Kaur moved to the US with her two sons around 33 years ago after her husband, Sukhwinder Singh, passed away.
She lived in the San Francisco Bay area and worked at a cloth store in Berkeley till Jan this year when she had to quit because of complications from her knee surgeries.
Kaur was taken into custody on Sept 8 during a routine check-in with immigration officials. Her asylum applications had been turned down, with the last rejection in 2012.
Kaur was moved to Mesa Verde IC Processing Centre in Bakersfield. "Despite the outrage over my detention and sympathy for me, the authorities in the US were simply unmoved," she said.
She was flown from Georgia to Armenia and then to New Delhi, along with 132 others, many of whom were Punjabis, she said. She was the only one not shackled and handcuffed. "I was the oldest, you see," Kaur said.
Her lawyer in the US, Deepak Ahluwalia, put out a video narrating the 60-70 hours before her deportation flight to India. "She was not given a bed and had to share a holding room. There was a concrete bench. She was made to sleep on the floor with a blanket. She was unable to get up when she would lie down because she had double knee replacement surgery."
Ahluwalia added, "She would ask for food so she could take her medicines. Those requests were ignored. Not that she wasn't fed at all. She was given a cheese sandwich. When she asked again to have something or even water to take her medication, she was given a plate of ice. She explained she had dentures and could not eat them. The guard told her — ‘that's your fault'."
Kaur was even denied a shower the entire time, said the lawyer. "Prior to the flight on Monday around 7pm, she and other detainees were given wet wipes and told to just clean up before they boarded. Throughout this entire ordeal, no food," he said.
Ahluwalia said an officer was apparently going to cuff and shackle Kaur as they "usually do on the plane," but another officer said not to because of her age. "The point I am trying to make here is how a 73-year-old grandmother with no criminal record was treated. And everyone can keep saying she had a final order of removal and she was asked to leave. ICE has suggested in their response to media articles that she had exhausted all her appeal options. That's correct. What's completely incorrect is that she chose to stay here when her case was denied or the last appeal option ran out."
Kaur is heartbroken that she could not even bid a proper farewell to her home in the US. "I couldn't go back even once to take care of my belongings, which were lying the way I left them," she told TOI.
Now back in India, she said she was "unwell" and would stay with her sister in Mohali for the time being. "Let's see what is in store for my life," she said.
Kaur has all sympathy for those who were deported with her. "They spent lakhs to go there. Some of them had spent 10 months to a year in detention and now return empty-handed. They were in distress as they had sold their land to reach US," said the elderly woman.
Kaur's younger brother, Kulwant Singh, a farmer in Pangota village, told TOI that he and the entire family would take care of her.
"We were able to get a travel document by ourselves and were trying to negotiate with ICE attorneys and US govt for her to depart on a commercial flight. That's all we were asking for," Ahluwalia said.
"We had asked to release her for even 24 hours. You can put ankle monitoring, or do whatever you need to, but give her a chance to say her goodbyes and take care of what she needs to take care of, and she will depart from San Francisco on Monday. We had attached the flight ticket, but they stopped responding. And around 2am on Saturday, without notifying the attorney or anyone else, they took her from Mesa Verde and drove her to LA in handcuffs," he added.
Ahluwalia said that a separate complaint would be given on the way Kaur was treated during her deportation. Kaur said whatever her counsel said in the video was true.
Kulwant Singh, the younger brother, said that Harjit was second among four siblings. Their eldest brother Jasbir Singh passed away. "It's sad the way she has been deported. She has been separated from her family. Now, I and our other family members will take care of her in Punjab, " said Singh.
"After living there for so long, you are suddenly detained and deported this way, it is better to die than to face this. In such a situation, one should not live," Harjit Kaur said with anguish. Choking up while speaking to TOI on Thursday evening, she said: "Look at my feet, they are swollen like cow dung cakes. I neither got medicine nor am I able to walk."
Also read: Harrowing 48 hours, transported to Georgia in handcuffs
Kaur landed in New Delhi on Thursday afternoon and was on her way to her sister's house in Mohali when she narrated her ordeal to TOI. A native of Pangota village in Tarn Taran district of Punjab, Kaur moved to the US with her two sons around 33 years ago after her husband, Sukhwinder Singh, passed away.
She lived in the San Francisco Bay area and worked at a cloth store in Berkeley till Jan this year when she had to quit because of complications from her knee surgeries.
Kaur was taken into custody on Sept 8 during a routine check-in with immigration officials. Her asylum applications had been turned down, with the last rejection in 2012.
Kaur was moved to Mesa Verde IC Processing Centre in Bakersfield. "Despite the outrage over my detention and sympathy for me, the authorities in the US were simply unmoved," she said.
She was flown from Georgia to Armenia and then to New Delhi, along with 132 others, many of whom were Punjabis, she said. She was the only one not shackled and handcuffed. "I was the oldest, you see," Kaur said.
Her lawyer in the US, Deepak Ahluwalia, put out a video narrating the 60-70 hours before her deportation flight to India. "She was not given a bed and had to share a holding room. There was a concrete bench. She was made to sleep on the floor with a blanket. She was unable to get up when she would lie down because she had double knee replacement surgery."
Ahluwalia added, "She would ask for food so she could take her medicines. Those requests were ignored. Not that she wasn't fed at all. She was given a cheese sandwich. When she asked again to have something or even water to take her medication, she was given a plate of ice. She explained she had dentures and could not eat them. The guard told her — ‘that's your fault'."
Kaur was even denied a shower the entire time, said the lawyer. "Prior to the flight on Monday around 7pm, she and other detainees were given wet wipes and told to just clean up before they boarded. Throughout this entire ordeal, no food," he said.
Ahluwalia said an officer was apparently going to cuff and shackle Kaur as they "usually do on the plane," but another officer said not to because of her age. "The point I am trying to make here is how a 73-year-old grandmother with no criminal record was treated. And everyone can keep saying she had a final order of removal and she was asked to leave. ICE has suggested in their response to media articles that she had exhausted all her appeal options. That's correct. What's completely incorrect is that she chose to stay here when her case was denied or the last appeal option ran out."
Kaur is heartbroken that she could not even bid a proper farewell to her home in the US. "I couldn't go back even once to take care of my belongings, which were lying the way I left them," she told TOI.
Now back in India, she said she was "unwell" and would stay with her sister in Mohali for the time being. "Let's see what is in store for my life," she said.
Kaur has all sympathy for those who were deported with her. "They spent lakhs to go there. Some of them had spent 10 months to a year in detention and now return empty-handed. They were in distress as they had sold their land to reach US," said the elderly woman.
Kaur's younger brother, Kulwant Singh, a farmer in Pangota village, told TOI that he and the entire family would take care of her.
"We were able to get a travel document by ourselves and were trying to negotiate with ICE attorneys and US govt for her to depart on a commercial flight. That's all we were asking for," Ahluwalia said.
"We had asked to release her for even 24 hours. You can put ankle monitoring, or do whatever you need to, but give her a chance to say her goodbyes and take care of what she needs to take care of, and she will depart from San Francisco on Monday. We had attached the flight ticket, but they stopped responding. And around 2am on Saturday, without notifying the attorney or anyone else, they took her from Mesa Verde and drove her to LA in handcuffs," he added.
Ahluwalia said that a separate complaint would be given on the way Kaur was treated during her deportation. Kaur said whatever her counsel said in the video was true.
Kulwant Singh, the younger brother, said that Harjit was second among four siblings. Their eldest brother Jasbir Singh passed away. "It's sad the way she has been deported. She has been separated from her family. Now, I and our other family members will take care of her in Punjab, " said Singh.