Indian man in US for nearly two decades ordered deported

LOS ANGELES: An Indian man who fled persecution in his country and has been in the US for nearly two decades was detained in California on Monday 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 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 India’s Punjab state sneaked into the US without a visa through the border with 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 since 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.

Alexis Perez Nava, with Resilience Orange County, a group helping with his case, said Singh was detained on Monday after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request to quash the deportation order. — AFP