Via NBC News: Indian immigrant fights deportation after police mistake perfume labeled ‘Opium’ for the narcotic.
An Indian immigrant who was working as a delivery driver was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after police officers in central Arkansas mistook a bottle of perfume labeled “Opium” as the narcotic drug of the same name.
Because, as it is well known, opium comes in a bottle (in liquid form, no less) with “Opium” on the label.
Good thing he didn’t have a Coke can in the car as well!
Raghu was arrested in May after an officer from the Benton Police Department spotted the rollerball perfume bottle in his car during a routine traffic stop. Raghu had been on an expired visa. He said he had tried to keep his status current by retaining an immigration lawyer to help before the expiration date, but the attorney, who no longer works with him, didn’t file the paperwork in time. He was sent to ICE detention after the arrest revealed his immigration status, his current attorneys said.
Raghu was released from ICE custody after nearly a month and all charges have since been dropped, but he was placed in deportation proceedings.
[…]
Roughly five months ago, Raghu, a delivery driver, had just finished an order when he was pulled over, he said. According to a police report, the officer initially stopped him because his license plate cover obscured the plate information, which is prohibited in Arkansas. The officer then asked Raghu for consent to search the car, the report said.
“I gave him consent because when you see a cop, you’re a little bit scared,” Raghu said. “Like, ‘Why are all these blue lights on me when I did nothing wrong?’”
After Raghu stepped out of the car, the officer came across the roller bottle, according to the police report. Raghu said that he generally keeps small bottles of perfume on his console to mask the scent of cigarette smoke. He said he bought the perfume at a gas station.
While I understand why it is illegal to have a license plate partially blocked, I am not a fan of pretextual stops like this. This was the police going fishing, not trying to deal with a suspected crime of any substance.
Raghu’s attorneys said that the arrest snowballed in part because of his immigration history. While Raghu entered the U.S. lawfully on a B-2 tourist visa in May 2024, the visa expired later that year, according to Javier Contreras, a Little Rock-based immigration attorney who was retained while Raghu was in detention. Raghu, who had been dating his now-wife Ashley Mays, remained in the country to pursue the relationship. The two got married in April.
Raghu said the failure of his previous attorney to file his visa application in a timely manner left him without status and at risk of being detained and deported.
Whenever I called them, their attitude was, ‘It’s OK, you are married to a born and raised citizen,’” Raghu said.
What this appears to be is over-aggressive policing, coupled with some pretty stupid (or malicious) actions in the field, leading to an intersection with our current politics, leading to ICE getting involved.
Should Raghu have made sure his paperwork was filed? Of course. It is also understandable that when you hire an attorney, you trust them to actually have the expertise they claim to have.
The whole story smacks of a broken system. How is anyone made safer now that he is not allowed to work and has to wait possibly years to get this situation resolved?
Contreras said that while Raghu previously would’ve been able to apply for immigration relief and work authorization all at the same time, his ongoing deportation proceedings mean that he cannot obtain a work permit until his pending family-based visa is approved. And this process could take up to years.
It would be my understanding that the deportation proceedings are a result of current federal policy, which has no room for mercy, compassion, or even a dispassionate assessment of harm.
Since many people apparently don’t care if someone who lacks a proper visa is mistreated, how about his wife, who is an American citizen (and is white, for those keeping score these days). What about her rights not to have her family disrupted in this way?
You would think it is not unreasonable for there to be a right to have one’s spouse be given permanent residency. But sure, let’s ruin a family’s ability to care for itself over a license plate cover, some perfume, and some paperwork.
There has to be a better way than this, and it is a national shame that we have been unwilling to fix this system, which is now being weaponized because people in power don’t like (most) foreigners.
