'Gave 2 Cookies & Chips, Denied Medicine': 73-Year-Old Woman From Punjab Deported By US Narrates Harrowing Experience- VIDEO

Delhi: Seventy-three-year-old Harjit Kaur, a Sikh grandmother who lived in the United States for over 30 years, has shared details of what happened when she was deported.

"I was arrested on 8 September... I was taken to Bakersfield, where I stayed for 8–10 days. I was then moved to Arizona, from where I was deported to Delhi, where my brother-in-law lives," she said speaking to news agency ANI.

She added that she was given only chips and two cookies to eat and alleged that she was denied medication. "My children over there will do something. I cannot do anything," she said.

MEA Reacts

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) during its weekly briefing on Friday provided details on the deportation of Indian nationals from the United States. "In the last several months, since January 2025, so far, we've had 2417 Indian nationals deported or repatriated from the United States. In the case of Harjeet Kaur, she also returned recently," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

"We want to promote legal pathways of migration. At the same time, India stands against illegal migration. Whenever there is a person who does not possess a legal status in any country, and he or she is referred to us with documents if there are claims of being that he or she is an Indian national, we do the background check, we confirm the nationality, and then we are in a position to take them back. And this is what has been happening with deportations from the United States," he added.

Kaur, a resident of East Bay in northern California for more than 30 years, was detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during a routine check, a report in Berkeleyside, a nonprofit news portal, said earlier.

Her family along with hundreds of community members organised a protest, demanding the immediate release of Kaur, who was detained after the ICE officials asked her to come to its San Francisco office for additional paperwork.