A Texas immigration court interpreter who has spent years helping South Asian migrants navigate the U.S. legal system is now fighting her own detention inside an ICE facility in South Texas, according to court records.
Meenu Batra, 53, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 17 after passing through security at Harlingen International Airport while traveling to Wisconsin for work, the Texas Observer reported. Batra has lived in the United States for 35 years and, according to that report, has worked for more than two decades as the only licensed Texas legal interpreter for Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu. Her professional directory listing independently confirms that she holds a Texas master-level court interpreter license in those languages.
