ICE Enforcement and Due Process

ICE detained Meenu Batra, a longtime Texas courtroom interpreter licensed in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, at an airport while she was reportedly en route to a work assignment, according to reports and social media posts. Batra has lived and worked in the U.S. for decades and has been described as the only licensed interpreter for those South Asian languages in Texas; she also holds withholding-of-removal protection, but reporters and commentators note a lingering final order of removal from 2000 tied to a missed asylum deadline, which authorities say underlies her detention.