What started as a desperate attempt to file urgent immigration paperwork ended in something Trisha Chatterjee never expected, a phone call to a Taco Bell.
The Indian American immigration lawyer had been trying to reach the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Detroit to submit stay requests for two of her detained clients. After days of silence, she finally managed to speak to an ICE agent who promised to connect her with someone who could help. But when Chatterjee dialed the number, she was given, the line didn’t lead to an ICE official rather it went straight to a Taco Bell in Columbus.
“I called and they answered and they said, ‘Hello, Taco Bell?’ And I said, ‘Taco Bell?’ And the guy who was working said, ‘Yeah, Taco Bell. Ma’am, you called me,” she revealed in a TikTok video.
Chatterjee raised the issue with ICE, hoping it was an honest mistake and would be corrected quickly. But instead of resolving things quietly, the incident further accelerated. With ICE Assistant Secretary Dept. of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin issuing a public statement on the social media, stating that, they never gave her a fast-food number and claimed she had ignored follow-up offers to help.
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Eventually, Chatterjee says after the video, someone from ICE’s Blue Ash office did reach out and is now assisting with the filings. But the whole incident has touched a nerve, raising bigger questions about communication gaps and the bureaucracy facing immigrants and those advocating for them.
Chatterjee, an immigration attorney working across Cincinnati and Dayton for the past two years, is currently representing eight detainees held at Butler County Jail. She was trying to file stay requests for some of them, a legal step that stops the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out deportations while individuals are either seeking lawful status, humanitarian relief, or are in the middle of appealing their removal orders.
“We have a number of people who are detained right now who have cases pending before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or before the court,” the Indian American lawyer noted, adding, “They’ve got immigration proceedings already pending.”
This is because ICE requires these stay requests to be submitted in person at the regional office and for Ohio cases, that means traveling all the way to Detroit. So, Chatterjee began exploring alternative ways to get the paperwork in. She was hoping to find a more efficient or accessible option, especially given the urgency of her clients’ situations.