Who is Indira Talwani, the Indian-American judge who blocked Trump's deportation order?

Indian-American US district Judge Indira Talwani recently said she would stay the order that aimed to strip legal protections from over 500,000 individuals. The immigrants—primarily from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela—had entered the US under a Biden-era humanitarian parole programme that granted them two-year work permits.

The decision prevents deportation efforts from going into effect on April 24, giving the court time to examine the administration’s legal justification.

Talwani said the government failed to provide a “reasoned decision,” and questioned why people who had passed background checks, paid for travel, and received sponsor support were being treated as if they had entered illegally.


Who is judge Indira Talwani?

• Judge Indira Talwani is the daughter of immigrants from India and Germany, according to a report by Economic Times.
• She graduated cum laude from Harvard university and later earned her Juris Doctor from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law.
• At law school, she was selected for the Order of the Coif and served as articles editor for the Industrial Relations Law Journal.
• She began her legal career as a law clerk to US district judge Stanley Weigel in California.
• She worked as an associate and then partner at a San Francisco law firm focused on labour and employment litigation.
• In 1999, she joined Segal Roitman LLP in Boston, where she continued representing workers in employment disputes and class actions.
• Judge Talwani has contributed as a senior editor for the American bar association’s treatise on the Family and Medical Leave Act.
• She has delivered lectures for legal associations and labour organisations on employment rights and workplace law.
• Her legal work has included union negotiations, arbitrations, and advocacy for fair workplace policies.