Indian National With 2000 Deportation Order Released From ICE Custody After Six Weeks

Meenu Batra was arrested by ICE on March 17 during a targeted enforcement operation and released from custody on April 30 by an activist judge appointed by Barack Obama, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Batra, who is from India, was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge in 2000.

She first entered the country illegally at an unknown date and location, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to CBS News.

U.S. as a teenager after her parents, who were members of India's Sikh community, were killed during an outbreak of violence against followers of the religion. She applied for asylum and was granted withholding of removal status.

Withholding of removal status did not allow Batra to apply for citizenship. U.S. service members are eligible to apply for citizenship, however, and her son Jasper joined the Army a few months ago.

U.S. government, which aims to prove her detainment was illegal, is still pending. "No one is safe," Batra said in an exclusive interview with CBS News.

She said the majority of women she met in ICE detention are not violent criminals. "My daughter doesn't sleep at night time," Batra said. "She keeps watch on me. " "They forget that aliens are humans and humans have rights," she said.

CBS News reported that Batra's parents were killed in violence targeting India's Sikh community, prompting her flight to the United States as a teenager. She has since built a life in the country while navigating immigration restrictions that withholding of removal status imposed on her path to citizenship.

Her son's recent enlistment in the Army created a new eligibility pathway for her citizenship application under rules for parents of service members.

That development occurred only months before ICE's March 17 arrest during its targeted enforcement operation. The Department of Homeland Security described Batra as an illegal alien from India in its statement detailing her 2000 final order of removal. Officials noted her initial illegal entry occurred at an unknown date and location years earlier.

Batra's release on April 30 came after weeks in detention. Her pending habeas petition continues in court as she seeks to establish that her detention was unlawful.

Batra, who has lived and worked legally in the country for years despite the outstanding removal order, expressed both fear and continued faith in American institutions.