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.

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. He is fighting to stay in the U.S. and for his case to be dismissed.

Now barred from legally working in the U.S. and facing potential removal, Kapil Raghu, a 28-year-old who is married to a U.S. citizen, sent a letter last week to ICE, pleading with the agency to use its prosecutorial discretion to dismiss the case. He’s hoping it will recognize the circumstances around his arrest.

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.

“I’m extremely depressed,” Raghu told NBC News. “I can’t work at all or make my family happy.”