‘It’s been a nightmare’: Longtime Long Beach restaurateur detained by ICE

Sitting on the patio of Panxa Cocina in Belmont Heights, Joti Kaur is fighting back tears, hands trembling — she hasn’t talked publicly about her mom being detained by immigration enforcement and emotions are high.

As Joti, 34, describes the impact the past week has had on her family, several tears fall to the table with a silent splash.

Joti’s mom, Babblejit "Bubbly" Kaur, 60, was detained by federal agents on Dec. 1 during a biometric scan appointment for her pending green card application, according to Joti. Bubbly has an approved petition from her other daughter, a U.S. citizen, and husband, who has a green card.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Joti said, her voice quivering. “We’re trying anything and everything to get her out. She doesn’t belong there. It’s so inhumane.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond Watchdog emails as to why Bubbly was detained.

Joti’s family was born in India. Her older brother, 41, and sister, 38, are both U.S. citizens, while Joti has legal status after years under DACA.

The family moved to the United States in 1994. The Kaurs first settled in Laguna Beach, where Singh worked at Natraj Indian Bistro & Bar. When the company needed help at its Long Beach restaurant, the family moved.

For more than two decades, Singh and Bubbly operated Natraj Cuisine of India and Nepal on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore, becoming “a cherished part of the Long Beach community,” Panxa co-owner and close family friend Vanessa Auclair wrote on a GoFundMe campaign she started for the family.

“One of the best qualities of 2nd Street has been that it has been a home to mom-and-pop businesses that welcome locals with a warm embrace,” said Jane Galloway, the former pastor of Immanuel Community Church in Bluff Heights. “This tradition was strongly supported by Bubbly and her husband. The hospitality they extended to the community meant so much to so many.”

The couple stepped away from Natraj two weeks before the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns, Joti said, adding that it was a tough decision. Bubbly had also been working at Rite Aid in Belmont Shore, a position she held for 25 years until the pharmacy shuttered all its locations this year.

Most recently, Bubbly had been working with the owner of Royal Indian Curry House, which is preparing to open in Downtown Long Beach, Joti said. Her mom had been eager to get back to work after the Rite Aid closure.

“The hardest thing is seeing my dad go through this,” Joti said. “A week before it happened, we celebrated their 41st anniversary — they are connected at the hip, he’s never been without her.”

Bubbly’s current application emphasizes her need for citizenship because of Singh's health issues, Joti said. The most recent filing was supposed to be the “final step in obtaining permanent residency here in the U.S.,” she added.

Joti and her family have been able to talk to and even visit Bubbly at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center near Victorville. Bubbly has recounted her experience to them — from the moment she was detained to her week in the former prison.

According to Joti, who has had several similar appointments, a biometric scan visit usually takes minutes and includes fingerprinting and having your photo taken. On Dec. 1, a family friend accompanied Bubbly to the appointment, Joti said, adding that her mom had a bad feeling about the appointment the whole day.

Once she arrived, staff was acting strangely, Bubbly told her family. While at the front desk, two cars pulled up to the office. Several federal agents got out and entered the building. They walked past Bubbly and into a back room.

Bubbly was then called into that same room. That’s when agents told her she was being arrested, despite having no criminal background. She demanded to speak to her attorney but, after an eight-minute call, she was still detained.

At first Joti and her family did not know where Bubbly was taken.

“They told us she was either going to Santa Ana or LA,” Joti said. “So there were a few hours where we were panicking because we couldn’t track her.”

Eventually, Bubbly turned up on the ICE detainee locator system. She was in LA.

“Then, around two in the morning, she went offline and we were nervous they were moving her somewhere and we didn’t know where,” Joti said. “We’ve heard stories of people that just go completely missing, so we were nervous something like that could happen.”

As it turns out, Bubbly had been moved. She was loaded into a van full of men, Joti said, with her hands and feet shackled.

“She was really scared,” Joti said.

Once she arrived at Adelanto, Bubbly was placed in a room with more than two dozen other people and numerous bunk beds, according to Joti. Bubbly is not sleeping well because the lights are not turned off at night and there is a constant stream of noise, she added.

“There’s always someone screaming or wailing,” Joti said. “They only bring people in at night, so there’s always someone going through … different emotions. She just wakes up.”

It took three days for the family to get money into Bubbly’s commissary account. There are also a limited number of phones at the facility, Joti said, which means detainees often have to wait hours for their turn.

Early on, it also was a challenge for Bubbly to speak to her attorney, Joti said.

Her mom’s visiting hours are limited to Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and Fridays and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. 

“You have to sign in early in the morning,” Joti said, adding that her brother has made the two-hour drive, signed in around 7:30 a.m. and then had to wait until 6:30 p.m. to see Bubbly for one hour.

“He could only hug her when he got there and when he was leaving, not too much hand touching or anything,” Joti continued. “What he really wanted to do was just give her some comfort.”

When the Trump administration launched its mass deportation campaign, officials said they would target the “worst of the worst” — murderers, rapists and drug dealers. Department of Homeland Security data, however, paints a different picture: Only 5% of people detained by ICE have violent convictions, while 73% have no convictions at all, according to the Cato Institute.

“It’s infuriating,” Auclair said. “She’s a bright light in the community.”

“‘Defeated’ is probably what my family would [say] because they’ve tried for so long, for so many years, with so many different attorneys,” Joti said of her mom’s journey through the U.S. immigration system.

“Our first attorney that we had for, like, a decade, was just taking money from immigrants and not filing anything,” she said. “[Immigrants] are a very easy group of people to take advantage of.”

Congressman Robert Garcia, who represents Long Beach, has been in contact with the family, Joti said. While his involvement is not a “magic ticket” to get Bubbly out of the detention center, Joti said it is nice to have an extra set of eyes on the case.

“These horrific actions continue to terrorize hardworking and good people who are trying to make our community a better place,” Garcia wrote in a social media post. “Please speak up. Continue to tell her story. We must fight and do all we can to ensure she is free.”

In a subsequent post, Garcia said his office has submitted a request for Bubbly's release. The family is preparing to file a temporary restraining order, which could see Bubbly released on bond, Joti said.

“Then we can have her home and go through the process that way,” Joti said.

In less than a week, Auclair’s GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $22,000 for attorney fees, commissary and other expenses that may arise as the family navigates this process. If money remains after the situation is resolved, Auclair said it will be donated to other families going through similar situations.

When asked what the community can do for her family beyond donating, Joti said simply: “I don’t know.”

But she has not given up.

“I do have hope that it will work out,” Joti said. “We still have to make our way in this country and we’re gonna do it the right way.”

Kate Karp contributed to this report.