TEXAS — Immigration agents handcuffed Texas court interpreter Meenu Batra at Harlingen International Airport on March 17 and transferred her to the El Valle detention facility in Raymondville, where she has been held for a month without explanation. Her lawyers have filed a habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas arguing that her detention is unlawful and seeking to block any transfer to another facility.

Batra, 53, is the only licensed Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu court interpreter in Texas and has worked as a court interpreter for more than 20 years, serving hundreds of people in immigration court. She holds a master-level interpreter license from Texas and was on her way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for work when an ICE officer stopped her at the airport and asked, "Do you know that you are here illegally?" In a sworn deposition, she said she had a valid status and a legal work permit. She also said the agents who arrested her did not have visible badges and were not wearing uniforms.

A plainclothes ICE agent told her, "That doesn't mean you can be here forever." She was taken in an unmarked SUV to an ICE office in Harlingen before being transferred to the El Valle facility. In a habeas corpus declaration, she said she was initially detained without food or water for 24 hours and was denied her cholesterol medication for several days. She alleged that officers made her pose for photographs with her hands behind her back to give the impression she was still handcuffed and told her the images were for social media. "This made me feel humiliated and treated like a criminal," Batra said.

Batra has lived in the United States for more than 35 years and spent almost her entire adult life in south Texas raising four children. In 2000, an immigration judge granted her a withholding of removal to India, concluding she was likely to face persecution there. Withholding of removal is a humanitarian protection that prevents sending an individual to the country of origin unless the immigration case is reopened. The Department of Homeland Security said she was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge in 2000. A DHS spokesperson said that employment authorization does not confer legal status. The agency did not clarify where it intended to send her.

Immigration attorney Deepak Ahluwalia, who represents Batra, said the government had not told him or his client why she was detained or where she would be sent. He suspects the government plans to send her to a third country because it has not reopened her immigration case or provided a destination. "It's been a month since Meenu was detained and they still haven't told her where they want to send her," Ahluwalia said.

The habeas corpus petition also alleges she faced inconsistent access to medical care following surgeries in December 2025. Her lawyers said she has contracted a respiratory illness in custody. Her youngest child, 18, enlisted in the military and filed a parole application on her behalf through a program that allows parents and spouses of service members a path to permanent residency. "People just disappear. And I know they want to make me disappear. I don't know where they want to send me," Batra said. The government has until April 21 to respond to the habeas corpus petition.