Sikh man who fled India deported after nearly two decades in US
An Indian man who fled persecution in his country and has been in the US for nearly two decades was detained in California after losing his latest appeal over a deportation order.
Gurmukh Singh, who is married to an American citizen and has two US-born daughters, was taken into custody on Monday by federal agents after failing to get a stay in his case, his attorney and family said.
The 46-year-old Sikh taxi driver from Punjab sneaked into the United States without a visa through Mexico in 1998.
He later applied for asylum, citing religious persecution. But his family and lawyer say he failed to properly pursue the case and was ordered deported.
Singh married a US citizen in 2010 but his deportation case resurfaced when he applied for a residency visa in 2012 given his new status. He was subsequently jailed for about five months but after rights activists posted his bail, he was released and his case has been going through the appeals process. His family said in the past several years, he had been checking in with the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a regular basis pending the outcome of his appeals against the deportation order. “We are completely devastated. This has completely broken us apart, emotionally and physically,” Singh’s 18-year-old daughter Manpreet told AFP.
She said her father has no criminal record, always paid his taxes and just sought to “live a normal life and feed his family.”
Lori Haley, an ICE spokeswoman, said Singh was ordered detained after his case had “undergone exhaustive review at all levels of our nation’s legal system.”