New Trump Administration immigration policies are having a major impact on an Indian Sikh from Garden Grove who has lived in the U.S. for almost 20 years, and his attorney Tuesday will file a new motion on his behalf.
The attorney for the Garden Grove resident from India plans to file an application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to allow the Indian immigrant to apply for permission to return to the U.S. when he receives an immigration visa.
Gurmukh Singh will ask to remain in the country while applying for a visa because he must eventually leave the country to re-enter anyway, attorney Monica Glicken said.
Singh was taken into custody Monday for deportation after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week denied his case for relief from the deportation order.
Singh’s immigration supervisor officer told him that he had to be detained because his federal appeal had been decided and he no longer had a case pending, Glicken said. That signaled a new policy under the Trump administration, she said.
“Traditionally, they would have said we don’t need to spend our money and time (deporting him) if he’s going to leave eventually anyway,” Glicken said.
Singh, a Sikh, fled India in 1998. He applied for asylum, citing religious persecution, and was referred to immigration authorities, according to Glicken, who said he was granted a court hearing on his asylum appeal.
Singh had an attorney recommended to him by a notary public who was helping him apply for a visa, Glicken said. However, he never met the attorney before the hearing and did nothing to prepare for it, Glicken said.
“They just showed up in court, Mr. Singh was put on the stand and his immigration visa was denied,” Glicken said.
In 2010, he got married to a U.S. citizen, and in 2012 he applied for legal immigration status. It was then that the deportation order surfaced, and in 2013, he was jailed for about five months.
Immigration rights activists who are supporting him helped him get out on a $5,000 bond, Singh said.
“Since that time, ICE had me check in here (in Santa Ana) every month, then every two months, then three months, then six months,” Singh said.
Before Monday’s meeting with federal authorities, Singh told City News Service he was fearful that ICE officials under the Trump administration would be much less sympathetic than the previous administration.
The taxi driver said he is the primary provider for his family, which includes two daughters, 15 and 18 years old, and his parents. He told reporters he wanted to “stay with my family … so I can take care of my wife, my parents and my daughters.”
He has no criminal record, his supporters say.
Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, has championed Singh’s case for several years.
“This is a very interesting issue,” Lowenthal said. “Who’s living by the rules and who isn’t living by the rules.”
Lowenthal said Singh has lived an “exemplary” life in the U.S. and through the immigration process has “followed the rules.” He said that when he looked into Singh’s case in 2013, he was told by ICE officials that Singh would not be deported because his case was not a “priority.”
“He’s lived up to his end of the bargain. Now it’s ICE’s turn to live up to their end of the bargain” and let Singh stay in the country, Lowenthal said.
Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, said, “There’s something wrong with our immigration system when people like Mr. Singh are denied the American dream.”
Correa said he has been fielding calls “every day” from constituents telling horror stories about “families being broken up” by deportations since President Donald Trump took office.
Correa said many have become so fearful that they are choosing to “go underground” rather than try to remain in the country legally by going through the process.
Singh’s daughter, Manpreet, said she has narrowed down her college choices to Cal State Fullerton or Cal Poly Pomona. However, if her father is deported, she would likely have to forgo higher education to try to help support the family because her father was the “main breadwinner.”
“There are not enough words to describe the pressure we’re under,” she said. “It’s just unbearable.”
Singh’s father is a citizen and his mother is a legal resident, Glicken said.
Singh’s case for legal immigration status would be easy to make on the basis of being married to a citizen, but the prior deportation order stands in the way of that appeal, Glicken said.
Singh must convince ICE officials to reopen the earlier case and take it back to court to have it administratively resolved before moving on to the application based on his marriage. If he is deported, it could take Singh several years to return to the U.S., Glickman said. There’s a rule mandating a five-year prohibition for an immigrant who fails to appear for a court hearing, she said.
—City News Service