Detained at the Finish Line: Indian Woman Held During U.S. Green Card Interview After 30 Years

A 60-year-old Indian-origin woman who has lived in the United States for more than three decades was detained by immigration authorities during what was expected to be the final step of her green card process. Babblejit “Bubbly” Kaur was taken into custody on Dec. 1 while attending a biometric scan appointment linked to her pending green card application, despite having approved petitions filed by her U.S. citizen daughter and her husband, who already holds a green card. According to her family, Kaur was arrested inside an ICE office, briefly allowed to call her lawyer, and then transferred overnight to the Adelanto ICE detention centre in California, leaving relatives unaware of her whereabouts for hours. Kaur, a longtime Long Beach resident, has deep community ties, having co-run a popular Indian restaurant for over 20 years and worked at a local pharmacy for 25 years. Her detention has sparked outrage, with Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia calling for her release and raising concerns over her conditions of confinement, which include constant lighting and overcrowded dorm-style housing. As her family pursues legal options for bond and release, they describe the ordeal as traumatic and inhumane, questioning how someone with such longstanding roots and an approved immigration pathway could end up behind bars.