The United States border patrol agents have reportedly arrested two Indians in the Washington State on charges of illegally staying in the country even after their visa had expired.
The agency, in a media release, said that the two people were arrested over the weekend and have now been sent to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where they await an immigration hearing. Post the trial, the two Indians are likely to be deported.
The two Indians were arrested during a routine immigration check of all the passengers at a bus terminal in Spokane, Washington. When interrogated, one person presented an expired B-2 tourist visa, which was issued over a year ago.
The B-2 visa is a document issued to tourists or those visiting the US for short-term medical purposes.
Meanwhile, the second Indian had reportedly crossed over to the US from Mexico sometime in May 2011 and presented a fake social security card to the border patrol agents.
Speaking of the arrests, patrol agent-in-charge Zach Crosson said that fake documents are hard to identify, which makes it convenient for illegal immigrants to resort to their use.
"The use of fake documents, while commonly used, is often difficult to detect due to the limited amount of interaction that our agents have with the public while conducting enforcement operations at the transportation facility," the Press Trust of India quoted Crosson as saying.
While the border patrol agents were following the procedure in this case, the US has faced massive backlash for the Donald Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, which has seen the detention of hundreds of people and heartbreaking separation of families.
Indians too have borne the brunt of this policy and just a few days ago it was said that an Indian woman, who had illegally crossed over to the US from Mexico, was detained and her five-year-old differently-abled son was taken away.
Bhavan Patel's case was taken up for hearing and reportedly appeared frail and worried in the courtroom and constantly wrung her hands. She was seeking asylum in the US after fleeing political persecution in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, her attorney said during the hearing, according to the Washington Post. She travelled to Greece and then Mexico after which she was trying to cross over to the US.
Meanwhile, the Oregon federal prison is also said to be housing over 50 Indians who are illegal immigrants. The men told the Oregonian that they had been separated from their families weeks ago and had not been able to meet anyone since. The only contact they have had with the outside world were their Hindi and Punjabi translators, the access to which was also limited.
The detainees also revealed that they were being housed in extremely tough conditions and one cell was shared among three people.
They added that they were locked for about 22-23 hours a day and hadn't even been able to get legal aid. The immigrants spoke of isolation and told lawmakers that they had no clue where their wives and children were and also worried that they may never see them again.
