:dateline:A delegation of North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) led by its Chairman Dalwinder Singh Dhoot met with congressman John Garamendi on May 3,2014 at his residence to seek the release of those Indian detainees who have been detained for more than one year in the El Paso Processing Center.
The panel including NAPA office bearers Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Santokh Singh Judge, Gurinderjit Singh Gogy, and Dalbir Singh ,told congressman John Garamendi that the Punjabi detainees had been on a hunger strike for more than one week to protest, and� demand their release either on parole, or on bond. They also told the congressman that the detainees called off their strike because of NAPA’s intervention.
The NAPA panel also told the congressman that as per the rules and regulations of the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), detainees can be not be legally detained longer than six months. Therefore ICE authorities should follow protocol and release the detainees on parole, or on bond.
The NAPA panel also made it clear to the congressman that they are only advocating, and seeking release, parole, or bond, of those detainees whose identity, and nationality, has been established by the ICE authorities, and who have no criminal background.
The panel also told the congressman that most of the relatives, and family friends, of the detainees are residents of California, so it is very difficult for them to continually have to travel to Texas in order to follow up on cases in El Paso courts. The panel demanded that the detainees’ cases be transferred from the 5th circuit court to the 9th circuit court in order to more easily follow the detainees’ cases.
Congressman John Garamendi assured the NAPA panel that he had directed his office in Washington to look seriously into the issue very closely. Legislative Director Liz (Shelton) Crow, of congressman John Garamendi’s (CA-03), has been designated to keep in touch with NAPA executive director Satnam Singh Chahal in order to deliver justice to the detainees of the El Paso Processing Center
