Texas immigration court interpreter detained by ICE says 'they want to make me disappear'

Source: The Guardian

A Texas court interpreter who was arrested by ICE after living in the US for more than 35 years is speaking out from detention, saying she has been “treated like a criminal” and fears being deported to a country where she has never been.

Meenu Batra is the only licensed Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu court interpreter in the state, and has served as an interpreter for hundreds of people in immigration court.

Then, last month, immigration agents at Harlingen international airport stopped her and put her in handcuffs, and transferred her to El Valle detention facility in Raymondville.

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Batra, 53, had spent almost her entire adult life in south Texas, raising four children there. She had fled Indian pogroms against Sikhs in Punjab, and had arrived in the US in 1991. In 2000, an immigration judge granted her a “withholding of removal” to India, concluding she was likely to face persecution there.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/16/ice-immigration-court-interpreter-detained

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Maanvi Singh
Thu 16 Apr 2026 11.00 EDT

Texas immigration court interpreter detained by ICE says ‘they want to make me disappear’

“It feels bizarre,” she said. “I don’t know how else to put it. Here I am just staring at the wall wondering what exactly I’m doing here but also what is anybody doing here.”