Houston: The detention of two Indian-origin persons - one a jazz guitarist, the other a green-card holder grandmother - in separate immigration cases in the US has grabbed headlines amid the Trump administration's stepped-up deportation and enforcement drive.
Pritesh Walia, a New Delhi-born jazz guitarist and educator, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after returning to Los Angeles earlier this month and was taken to the Adelanto ICE Processing Centre, according to a written statement posted on his Instagram account.
However, it is not immediately clear what visa he possessed and why exactly he was detained.
Walia said he was released on bond after 14 days in custody. He further said in a video on Saturday that his immigration case was still ongoing.
The second case pertains to Venkata Vasamsetty, a permanent resident who has held a US green card since 2013. She was detained by ICE at a scheduled check-in in North Carolina on August 11.
She was arrested months after an immigration judge dismissed the government's earlier removal proceedings against her, according to a Newsweek report published on Friday.
The report said that Vasamsetty has lived in the US for 27 years, and works with special-needs students in North Carolina. She is a mother of two and has two grandchildren - all of them US citizens, it said.
Vasamsetty had travelled to India in 2022 to care for an ailing parent and returned to the US in February 2023 after her stay was extended by illness, including COVID-19, the report said.
Her lawyer has disputed allegations that she abandoned her permanent residency.
According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, legal permanent residents, including green-card holders, who spend more than 180 days outside the country can face additional scrutiny upon reentry, including examination of whether they maintained US residency and intended to keep the US as their permanent home.
The immigration judge dismissed the removal case against Vasamsetty on May 19, after the Department of Homeland Security failed to meet a deadline to submit evidence, according to the report.
She nevertheless continued attending scheduled ICE check-ins and was detained when she appeared at the agency's Charlotte office on August 11.
Her legal team subsequently filed an emergency habeas corpus petition challenging her detention at the Irwin County Detention Centre in Georgia.
A federal judge on August 13 ordered immigration authorities to explain the legal basis for keeping her in custody, the report said.
The cases come amid sharp intensification of immigration enforcement in President Donald Trump's second term, which has made deportations and tighter immigration controls a policy priority.
Between 2022 and 2025, more than 27,800 Indian nationals were detained by ICE, according to US Department of Homeland Security data.
.jpeg?w=600)
