Indian-origin British businessman who had lived in the United States since 2016 was detained by the ICE in February after his barbecue franchise in Florida bankrupted him and he got into trouble with his taxes. In June, he was deported to the UK. But the three months he spent at several ICE detention centers were no less than a nightmare, the 56-year-old businessman told the Human Rights Watch. After his arrest, he was shackled when he was taken to the center where there were too many detainees and no bed, no showers or privacy. “I used my shoes as a pillow. We had no cups for water, just a toilet with a half-wall for privacy,” he said. His family provided the ICE officers with his asthma inhaler, insulin medicine but those were never delivered to him. Chauhan said he spent the following months in three detention centers: Krome, FDC and BTC with the condition of each of them worse than the others. “They told us if we kept asking for a toilet that flushed, they would create a problem we wouldn’t like,” he said.At one center, he collapsed and had to be hospitalized. His son Aaton told Human Rights Watch that he received a call from a relative of his father’s cellmate but the center staff did not inform him about anything. When he finally managed to get the details of the hospital and called there, they told him no patient by the name of ‘Harpinder Chauhan’ was there. Later, he was told that the ICE authorities asked the hospital not to disclose any information, as he was in custody.Chauhan recalled another incident where an officer made fun of his last name and called him ‘chihuahua’ instead of Chauhan. In May, a judge ruled for his removal to the UK but the ICE officers said they lost his passport and he could only come home to the UK in June. Chauhan said he did not enter the US illegally but had an E-2 investor visa as he launched several small businesses. He filed for permanent residency through an approved EB-5 visa petition, but after his barbecue franchise got bankrupt, he got into tax troubles that landed him with the ICE.
