Gurmukh Singh and wife Balwinder Kaur walk to the Federal Building before he is taken into custody after an ICE hearing in Santa Ana. ICE’s decision to take Mr. Singh into custody Monday morning, May, 8, 2017, was based on a deportation order handed down by an immigration judge with the Department of JusticeÕs Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in 1999. (Photo by KEN STEINHARDT, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Gurmukh Singh’s family comforts each other during a news conference before he is taken into custody after ICE hearing in Santa Ana. ICEÕs decision to take Mr. Singh into custody Monday morning, May, 8, 2017, was based on a deportation order handed down by an immigration judge with the Department of JusticeÕs Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in 1999. (Photo by KEN STEINHARDT, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Taxi driver Gurmukh Singh before he is taken into custody after an ICE hearing in Santa Ana on Monday morning, May, 8, 2017. (Photo by Ken Steinhardt, Orange County Register/SCNG)



SANTA ANA — Gurmukh Singh, a Garden Grove resident and family man with no criminal record, entered a federal building with his wife, two daughters and a pro bono attorney Monday morning to check in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as required for individuals with final deportation orders who have been released under supervision.

An asylum seeker, Singh, 46, said he was “very nervous.”

The taxi driver had been taken into ICE custody once before, in 2013, when he interviewed for legal permanent resident status unaware of his outstanding deportation order. Immigrants rights groups and politicians successfully advocated for his release, but two weeks ago, a judge dismissed Singh’s appeal to reopen his asylum case.

“I would be broke, the family separated and we’re not supposed to be separated,” Singh said of the prospects of detention and deportation. “I would be depressed. What would happen to their future, my future?”

Singh prayed with dozens of family members and supporters outside 34 Civic Center Plaza before walking in.

He didn’t come back out.

“The look on his face told me there was nothing that could be done,” said Singh’s oldest daughter, Manpreet Saini, 18, who hugged him before ICE officials took him away. “He breaks down. He’s crying. I’ve never seen him cry like that.”

It’s unclear where Singh will be detained and the timeline for any actions ICE may take. Various groups and local elected officials have vowed to ramp up efforts to demand Singh’s release.

ICE has discretion to grant a stay of removal, and immigration officials often did so under the Obama administration, which ordered that non-criminal detainees were not the priority for deportation proceedings. However, Monica Glicken, Singh’s volunteer attorney through Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Orange County, said “that conversation did not go anywhere” on Monday.

“They didn’t even take us into an office. Two ICE agents on each side allowed him a moment and took him away,” Glicken said. “The (ICE) supervisor said under the Trump administration’s policy, they feel constrained not to exercise discretion.”

The Trump administration has directed Department of Homeland Security personnel to prioritize enforcement efforts on those who been convicted of a criminal offense, charged with a criminal offense that has not been resolved, or are subject to a final order of removal but have not complied with their legal obligation to leave the country.

“While criminal aliens and those who pose a threat to public safety will continue to be a focus, DHS will NOT exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement,” ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said Monday in an email. “All those in violation of our nation’s immigration laws may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.”

Singh, who has lived in Garden Grove for 13 years, immigrated to the U.S. in 1998 without inspection – escaping religious persecution in India – and applied for asylum the following year. His previous counsel did not notify him in advance of his court date in 1999 and did not prepare him, so Singh appeared at the hearing without supporting evidence or testimony, according to Glicken. In addition, his original attorney failed to inform Singh that the judge issued a deportation order.

It wasn’t until Singh’s wife, Balwinder Kaur, became a U.S citizen in 2010 and applied for him to become a legal permanent resident in 2012 that he found out he had a deportation order on his record. During the interview, immigration officials took Singh into custody and he was detained at the California City Correctional Center for 5 1/2 months.

Immigrants rights groups RAIZ and the Asian American justice center fought for his release, and Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, said ICE gave him a verbal agreement that the agency would hold off on Singh’s deportation.

For years, Singh has attended his regularly scheduled appointments with ICE and been an “exemplary citizen,” acting as the breadwinner and taking care of his teenage daughters, parents and wife, who has diabetes, Lowenthal said.

“So Mr. Singh has lived up to his part of the bargain,” Lowenthal said before Singh entered the building on Monday. “Now it’s time for ICE to live up to their part of the bargain.”

Singh tried to reopen his asylum case in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing ineffective assistance from his previous counsel, but a judge dismissed his appeal on April 25.

ICE’s decision to take Singh into custody Monday, May 8, was based on a deportation order handed down by an immigration judge with the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review in 1999, according to Kice.

“Over the last 18 years, Department of Homeland Security databases indicate Mr. Singh’s case has undergone exhaustive review at all levels of our nation’s legal system, including scrutiny by local immigration judges with EOIR, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,” Kice wrote. “After examining the facts of Mr. Singh’s case, the courts have all upheld his original removal order.”

Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, said that since Trump became president, it’s become “very much typical” in his district for “honest, hard-working” people like Singh to face deportation.

“I get calls every week,” Correa said during the rally Monday for Singh. “There is something wrong with our immigration system when people like Mr. Singh are denied the American dream.”

Lowenthal last Thursday introduced a private bill for permanent resident status for Singh, but he is not eligible until his deportation order has been resolved, Glicken said. If he is deported, he can apply to return to the U.S., but the process could take at least five years.

While Singh’s future is uncertain, so is his family’s.

Saini, 18, who attends Rancho Alamitos High School, said she has been accepted to Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly Pomona but may have to find a job instead of pursuing her education to help make ends meet.

“Without him,” she said, “we would not be able to pursue our dreams.”