Mr Singh has regularly visited India without immigration issues, his niece Kiran Virk told the BBC. This time, his family waited seven hours at Chicago airport for his arrival.<\/p>\n
Ms Virk says immigration officials told them Mr Singh was detained over a 1999 case. He was held at the airport for five days despite family appeals, before being moved to a Clay County detention centre in Indiana.<\/p>\n
The case involves Mr Singh using a public phone without paying. Court records show he served 10 days in prison and paid a $4,137.50 fine. The conviction has blocked his US citizenship.<\/p>\n
Ms Virk alleges immigration authorities said at a court hearing that Mr Singh still faced a one-and-a-half-year sentence, with only 10 days dismissed.<\/p>\n
Immigration authorities also say that Mr Singh was convicted of a forgery offence in Illinois in 2008, but his family contends that there are no such charges against him.<\/p>\n
Ms Virk said that the authorities cited the forgery case to stay Mr Singh’s release on a $10,000 bond granted by an immigration judge.<\/p>\n
She said a private detective hired by the family found no criminal records for a person named Paramjit Singh in the state, suggesting authorities may have mistaken him for someone else.<\/p>\n
The BBC has asked ICE for a response to the family’s claim that there is no forgery case against Mr Singh in Illinois.<\/p>\n
Mr Singh’s lawyer told the BBC he plans to challenge the detention, calling it “unethical”.<\/p>\n
“We are also taking legal steps to block him from being deported from the US,” Mr Angeles told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Mr Singh’s family is increasingly worried about his health, as his second brain tumour surgery has been delayed due to detention, Ms Virk says.<\/p>\n
She says the family struggles to contact Mr Singh at the detention centre, where limited phones and his poor health make communication difficult.<\/p>\n
Mr Singh’s case is set to be heard on 14 October. <\/p>\n
His detention comes amid a wider crackdown by US President Donald Trump’s administration on immigration, and especially illegal immigrants in the US.<\/p>\n
Trump has said he wants to deport the “worst of the worst”, but critics say immigrants without criminal records who follow due process have also been targeted.<\/p>\n
In September, Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old grandmother who spent more than three decades living in the US was deported to India<\/a>, sparking anger among the Sikh community. <\/p>\n Follow BBC News India on Instagram, external<\/a>, YouTube,, external<\/a> X, external<\/a> and Facebook, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n